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STORIES OF 

OUR 
NAVAL HEROES 



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EDITED BY 

REV. JESSE LYMAN HURLBUT, D.D. 



ILLUSTRATED 




THE JOHN C. WINSTON CO. 

A PHII.ADF.I.PHIA A 






KlBHARY of OfjNi^RE^ 
I I wo OoBies Kecui-e. I 

1 OCT 3 jy^JB I 

JOt'Y CJ.T 



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COPVlilOIIT, lOOS, BY 

The .Toun C. Winston Co. 



PREFACE 



WE live In a land of heroes. If there is 
any one thing for which a true son of 
America is always ready, it is for a 
deed of heroism. We have among us heroes 
of the workshop, of the railroad, of field, 
forest, and city, heroes of land and heroes of 
water, heroes ir^ war and heroes in peace. 
When the time comes for any deed of valor to 
be done, the American ready and able to do it 
will not be found wanting. It is not glory the 
gallant son of our land is seeking. It is to do 
his duty in whatever situation he is placed, 
whether high or low, on quarter-deck or fore- 
castle. He does not stop to think of fame. To 
act bravely for his fellows or his country is the 
thing for him to do, and he does it in face of 
every peril. 

The history of the United States is full of 
the names of heroes. They stand out like the 
stars on our flag. It is not our purpose to 
boast. The world has had its heroes in all 

(iii) 



iv PREFACE 

times and countries. But our land holds a 
high rank among heroic nations, and deeds of 
gallant daring have been done by Americans 
which no men upon the earth have surpassed. 

This book is the record of our heroes of the 
sea, of the men who have fought bravely upon 
the ocean for the honor of the Stars and 
Stripes, the noble tars who have carried their 
country's fame over all waters and through all 
wars. Look at Paul Jones, the most gallant 
sailor who ever trod deck ! He was not born on 
our soil, but he was a true-blue American for 
all that. Look at Perry, rowing from ship to 
ship amid the rain of British shot and shell! 
Look at Farragut in the Civil War, facing 
death in the rigging that he might see the 
enemy ! Look at Dewey in the war with Spain, 
on the bridge amid the hurtling Spanish shells ! 
These are but types of our gallant sailors. 
They have had their equals in every war. We 
have hundreds to-day as brave. All they wait 
for is opportunity. When the time comes they 
will be ready. 

If all our history is an inspiration, our naval 
history is specially so. It is full of thrilling 
tales, stories of desperate deeds and noble valor 



PREFACE V 

which no work of fiction can surpass. We are 
sure that all who take up this book will find it 
vital with interest and brimming with inspira- 
tion. Its tales deal with men who fought for 
their land with only a plank between them and 
death, and none among us can read the story 
of their deeds without a thrill in the nerves and 
a stir in the heart, and without a wish that 
sometime they may be able to do as much for 
the land that gave them birth. This is a book 
for the American boy to read, and the Amer- 
ican girl as well; a book to fill them with the 
spirit of emulation and make them resolve that 
when the time comes they will act their part 
bravely in the perilous work of the world. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I 

PAGB 

First Sea Fight of the Revolution. 
The Burning of the "Gaspee" in Narragansett 

Bay ^ 

CHAPTER n 
A British Schooner Captured by Farmers. 

Captain Jerry O'Brien Leads the Patriots of 

II 
1775 

CHAPTER HI 

Benedict Arnold, the Soldier-Sailor. 

A Novel Fight on Lake Champlain 21 

CHAPTER IV 

Captain Paul Jones. 

The Greatest of America's Naval Heroes 32 

CHAPTER V 

How Paul Jones Won Renown. 

The First Great Fight of the American Navy . . 44 

(vii) 



viii CONTENTS 

CHAPTER VI 

PAGE 

Captain Bushnell Scares the British. 

The Pioneer Torpedo Boat and the Battle of 

the Kegs 60 

CHAPTER VH 

Captain Barry and His Rowboats Win a 
Victory Over the British. 

A Gallant Naval Hero of Irish Blood 70 

CHAPTER VIII 

Captain Tucker Honored by George 
Washington. 

The Daring Adventures of the Hero of Mar- 
blehead 8i 

CHAPTER IX 
The Last Naval Battle of the Revolution. 

The Heroic Captain Barney in the "Hyder AH" 

Captures the "General Monk" 90 

CHAPTER X 

The Moorish Pirates of the Mediterranean. 

Our Navy Teaches them a Lesson in Honor ... 99 



CONTENTS ix 

CHAPTER XI 

PAGE 

The Young Decatur and His Brilliant 
Deeds at Tripoli. 

How Our Navy Began and Ended a Foreign 
War io8 

CHAPTER Xn 

The Gallant Old "Ironsides" and How 
She Captured the "Guerriere." 

A Famous Incident of the War of 1812 126 

CHAPTER XIII 

A Famous Vessel Saved by a Poem. 

"Old Ironsides" Wins New Glory^ 140 

CHAPTER XIV 
The Fight of Captain Jacob Jones. 

The Lively Little "Wasp" and How She Stung 

the 'Trolic" I55 

CHAPTER XV 

Captain Lawrence Dies for the Flag. 

His Words, "Do not give up the ship," Become 

the Famous Motto of the American Navy. 166 



X CONTENTS 

CHAPTER XVI 

PAGE 

Commodore Perry Whips the British on 
Lake Erie, 

"We have met the enemy and they are ours". . 176 

CHAPTER XVn 

Commodore Porter Gains Glory in the 
Pacific. 
The Gallant Fight of the "Essex" Against 

Great Odds 189 

CHAPTER XVni 

Commodore MacDonough's Victory on 
Lake Champlain. 

How General Prevost and the British Ran 

Away 201 

CHAPTER XIX 

Four Naval Heroes in One Chapter, 

Fights with the Pirates of the Gulf and the 

Corsairs of the Mediterranean 210 

CHAPTER XX 

Commodore Perry Opens Japan to the 
World. 

A Heroic Deed Without Bloodshed 220 



CONTENTS xi 

CHAPTER XXI 

PAGE 

Captain Ingraham Teaches Austria a 
Lesson. 

Our Navy Upholds the Rights of an American 

in a Foreign Land 231 

CHAPTER XXn 

The "Monitor" and the "Merrimac." 

A Fight which Changed all Naval Warfare. . . 239 

CHAPTER XXni 
Commodore Farragut Wins Renown. 

The Hero of Mobile Bay Lashes Himself to the 

Mast 252 

CHAPTER XXIV 
A River Fleet in a Hail of Fire. 

Admiral Porter Runs by the Forts in a Novel 

Way 268 

CHAPTER XXV 
The Sinking of the "Albemarle." 

Lieutenant Gushing Performs the most 

Gallant Deed of the Civil War 278 



xii CONTENTS 

CHAPTER XXVI 

PAGE 

How THE "Gloucester" Revenged the 
Sinking of the "Maine." 

Deadly and Heroic Deeds in the War with 

Spain 288 

CHAPTER XXVn 

The Great Victory of Manila Bay. 

Dewey Destroys a Fleet Without Losing a Man 294 

CHAPTER XXVni 

Hobson and the Sinking of the 
"Merrimac." 

An Heroic Deed Worthy of the American 

Navy 304 

CHAPTER XXIX 

Sampson and Schley Win Renown. 

The Greatest Sea Fight of the Century 313 



CHAPTER I 

THE FIRST SEA FIGHT OF THE REVO- 
LUTION 



The Burning of the "Gaspee" in Narra- 
GANSETT Bay 

DOES it not seem an odd fact that little 
Rhode Island, the smallest of all our 
states, should have two capital cities, 
while all the others, some of which would make 
more than a thousand Rhode Islands, have 
only one apiece? It is like the old story of the 
dwarf beating the giants. 

The tale we have to tell has to do with these 
two cities, Providence and Newport, whose 
story goes back far into the days when Rhode 
Island and all the others were British colo- 
nies. They were capitals then and they are 
capitals still. That is, they were places where 
the legislature met and the laws were made. 

I need not tell you anything about the Brit- 
ish Stamp Act, the Boston Tea-party, the fight 

(0 



2 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

at Lexington, and the other things that led to 
the American Revolution and brought free- 
dom to the colonies. All this you have learned 
at school. But I am sure you will be interested 
in what we may call the "salt-water Lexing- 
ton," the first fight between the British and 
the bold sons of the colonies. 

There was at that time a heavy tax on all 
goods brought into the country, and even on 
goods taken from one American town to an- 
other. It was what we now call a revenue 
duty, or tariff. This tax the Americans did 
not like to pay. They were so angry at the 
way they had been treated by England that 
they did not want that country to have a penny 
of their money. Nor did they intend to pay 
any tax. 

Do you ask how they could help paying the 
tax? They had one way of doing so. Vessels 
laden with goods were brought to the coast at 
night, or to places where there was no officer 
of the revenue. Then in all haste they un- 
loaded their cargoes and were away again like 
flitting birds. The British did not see half the 
goods that came ashore, and lost much in the 
wav of taxes. 



BURNING OF THE " GASPEE " 3 

We call this kind of secret trade "smug- 
gling." Providence and Newport were great 
smuggling places. Over the green waters of 
Narragansett Bay small craft sped to and fro, 
coming to shore by night or in secret places 
and landing their goods. It was against the 
law% but the bold mariners cared little for laws 
made in England. They said that they were 
quite able to govern themselves, and that no 
people across the seas should make laws for 
them. 

The British did their best to stop this kind 
of trade. They sent armed vessels to the Bay, 
whose business it was to chase and search 
every craft that might have smuggled goods 
in its hold, and to punish in some way every 
smuggler they found. 

Some of these vessels made themselves very 
busy, and sailors and shoremen alike were 
bitter against them. They would bring in 
prizes to Newport, and their sailors would 
swagger about the streets, bragging of what 
they had done, and making sport of the 
Yankees, They w^ould kidnap sailors and 
carry them off to serve in the King's ships. 
One vessel came ashore at Newport, whose 



4 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

crew had been months at sea, trading on the 
African coast. Before a man of them could 
set foot on land, or see any of the loved ones 
at home,^ from whom they had been parted so 
long, a press-gang from a British ship-of-war 
seized and carried ofif the whole crew, leaving 
the captain alone on his deck. 

We may be sure that all this made the peo- 
ple very indignant. While the rest of the 
country was quiet, the Newporters were at the 
point of war. More than once they were ready 
to take arms against the British. 

In July, 1769, a British armed sloop, the 
Liberty, brought in two prizes as smugglers. 
They had no smuggled goods on board, but the 
officers of the Liberty did not care for that. 
And their captains and crews were treated as 
if they were prisoners of war. 

That night something new took place. The 
lookout on the Liberty saw two boats, crowded 
with men, gliding swiftly toward the sloop. 

"Boat ahoy!" he shouted. 

Not a word came in reply. 

"Boat ahoy! Answer, or I'll fire!" 

No answer still. The lookout fired. The 
watch came rushing up on deck. But at the 



BURNING OF THE " GASPEE " 5 

same time the men in the boats climbed over 
the bulwarks and the sailors of the Liberty 
found themselves looking into the muzzles of 
guns. They were taken by surprise and had 
to yield. The Americans had captured their 
first prize. 

Proud of their victory, the Newporters cut 
the cables of the sloop and let her drift ashore. 
Her captives were set free, her mast was cut 
down, and her boats were dragged through the 
streets to the common, where they were set on 
fire. A jolly bonfire they made, too, and as the 
flames went up the people cheered lustily. 

That was not all. With the high tide the 
sloop floated ofif. But it went ashore again 
on Goat Island, and the next night some of 
the people set it on fire and it was burned to 
the water's edge. That was the first American 
reply to British tyranny. The story of it spread 
far and wide. The King's officers did all they 
could to find and punish the men who had cap- 
tured the sloop, but not a man of them could 
be discovered. Everybody in the town knew, 
but no one would tell. 

This was only the beginning. The great 
event was that of the Gaspee. This was a 



6 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

British schooner carrying six cannon, which 
cruised about the Bay between Providence and 
Newport, and made itself so active and so 
offensive that the people hated it more than all 
those that had gone before. Captain Dud- 
dingstone treated every vessel as if it had been 
a pirate, and the people were eager to give it 
the same dose they had given the Liberty. 

Their time came in June, 1772. The Han- 
nah, a vessel trading between New York and 
Providence, came in sight of the Gaspee and 
was ordered to stop. But Captain Linzee had 
a fine breeze and did not care to lose it. He kept 
on at full speed, and the Gaspee set out in chase. 

It was a very pretty race that was seen that 
day over the ruffled waters of the Bay. For 
twenty-five miles it kept up and the Hannah 
was still ahead. Then the two vessels came 
near to Providence bar. 

The Yankee captain now played the British 
sailors a cute trick. He slipped on over the bar 
as if there had been a mile of water under his 
keel. The Gaspee, not knowing that the Han- 
nah had almost touched bottom, followed, and 
in a minute more came bump upon the ground. 
The proud war-vessel stuck fast in the mud. 



BURNING OF THE " GASPEE " 7 

while the hght-footed Yankee shd swiftly on 
to Providence, where the story of the chase 
and escape was told to eager ears. 

Here was a splendid chance. The Gaspee 
was aground. Now was the time to repay Cap- 
tain Duddingstone for his pride and insolence. 
That night, while the people after their day's 
work were standing and talking about the 
news, a man passed down the streets, beating 
a drum and calling out : 

''The Gaspee is aground. Who will join in 
to put an end to her?" 

There was no lack of volunteers. Eight 
large boats had been collected from the ships 
in the harbor, and there were soon enough to 
crowd them all. Sixty-four men were selected, 
and Abraham Whipple, who was afterward 
one of the first captains in the American navy, 
took command. Some of the men had guns, 
but their principal weapons were paving stones 
and clubs. 

It was about two o'clock in the morning 
when this small fleet came within hail of the 
Gaspee. She was fast enough yet, though she 
was beginning to lift with the rising tide. An 
hour or two more might have set her afloat. 



8 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

A sentinel who was pacing the deck hailed 
the boats when they came near. 

"Who comes there?" he cried. 

A shower of paving stones that rattled on 
the deck of the Gaspee was the only answer. 
Up came the captain and crew, like bees from 
a hive that has been disturbed. 

''I want to come on board," said Captain 
Whipple. 

''Stand ofif. You can't come aboard," an- 
swered Captain Duddingstone. 

He fired a pistol. A shot from one of the 
guns on the boats replied. The British captain 
fell with a bullet in his side. 

'T am sheriff of the County of Kent," cried 
one of the leaders in the boats. 'T am come 
for the captain of this vessel. Have him I 
will, dead or alive. Men, to youp oars!" 

On came the boats, up the sides of the ves- 
sel clambered the men, over the rails they 
passed. The sailors showed fight, but they 
were soon knocked down and secured. The 
proud Gaspee was in the hands of the despised 
Yankees. 

As the captors were tying the crew, a sur- 
geon who was in the boats was called on deck. 



BURNING OF THE " GASPEE " 9 

"What do you want, Mr. Brown ?" he asked. 

''Don't call names, man," cried Brown. "Go 
into the cabin. There is a wounded man there 
who may bleed to death." 

The surgeon was needed, for Captain Dud- 
dingstone was bleeding freely. The surgeon, 
finding no cloth for bandages, tore his own 
shirt into strips for this purpose, and soon had 
the bleeding stopped. The captain was gently 
lowered into one of the boats and rowed up to 
Providence. 

The wounded man away, the captors began 
their work. Rushing through the vessel, they 
made havoc of furniture and trappings. There 
were some bottles of liquor in the captain's 
cabin, and some of the men made a rush for 
these; but the surgeon smashed them with the 
heels of his boots. That was not the time or 
place for drunken men. 

This done, the Gaspee was set on fire, and 
was soon wrapped in flames. The men rowed 
their boats some distance out, and there rested 
on their oars, watching the flames as they shot 
up masts and rigging. Not until the loaded 
guns went ofif, one after another, and in the 
end the magazine was reached and the ship 



10 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

blew up, did they turn their prows towards 
home. Never again would the Gaspee trouble 
American ships. 

When word of what had been done reached 
England, there was fury from the King 
down. Great rewards were offered for any 
one who would betray any of the party, but 
not a name was told. For six long months a 
court of inquiry sat, but it could not get evi- 
dence enough to convict a single man. The 
Americans were staunch and firm and stood 
for each other like brothers tried and true. 

Not until the colonies threw off the royal 
yoke and were battling for freedom was the 
secret told. Then the men of the long-boats 
did not hesitate to boast of what they had done. 
It was the first stroke of America in the cause 
of liberty, and the work of the men of Provi- 
dence gave new heart to the patriots from 
Maine to Georgia. 



CHAPTER II 

A BRITISH SCHOONER CAPTURED BY 
FARMERS IN 1775 



Captain Jerry O'Brien Leads the Patriots 
OF 1775 

HOW would any of you like to go back to 
the days when people had only tallow 
candles to light their houses, and the 
moon to light their streets, when they traveled 
on horseback or by stage, and got their news 
only when it happened to come? In these days 
of the electric light, the railroad train, and the 
telegraph that old way of living would not 
seem living at all. 

Yet that was the way people lived in 1775 
when the Revolution began. It took weeks for 
news to travel then, where it takes seconds 
now. Thus the fight at Lexington, which 
began the Revolution, took place on April 19th, 
but it was May 9th, more than half a month 
later, before the news of it reached the little 

(II) 



12 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

town of Machias, on the coast of Maine. We 
should hardly call that fast time. It must have 
taken several naps on the way. 

But when the news came, it found the people 
ready for it. A coasting schooner put into the 
port and brought the story of how the patriots 
had fought and bled at Lexington and Con- 
cord, and of how the British were shut up in 
Boston town, and the country was at war. The 
news was received with ringing cheers. 

If any of my readers had been at Machias 
that day I know they would have felt like 
striking a blow for liberty. At any rate, that 
is how the people of Machias felt, and it did 
not take them long to show it. 

They had some reason not to like the King 
and his men. All the tall, straight trees in 
their woods were kept to make masts for the 
King's ships, and no woodman dared set axe to 
one of these pine trees except at risk of going 
to prison. Just then there were two sloops in 
their harbor loading with ship-timber, and an 
armored schooner, the Margarctta, was there 
as a good looker-on. 

When the men on the wharf heard the story 
of Lexington, their eyes fell on the Marga- 



BRITISH SCHOONER CAPTURED 13 

retta. Here was a chance to let King George 
know what they thought about his robbing 
their woods. 

"Keep this a secret," they said to the sailors. 
"Not a word of it to Captain Moore or his 
men. Wait till to-morrow and you will see 
some sport." 

That night sixty of the countrymen and 
townsmen met at a farmhouse nearby and laid 
their plans. It was Saturday. On Sunday 
Captain Moore and his officers would go to 
church. Then they could gather at the wharf 
and might take the schooner by surprise. 

But it is often easier to make a plot than to 
keep it a secret, and that lesson they were to 
learn. The captain and his officers went to the 
little village church at sound of the morning 
bell; the Margaretta lay lazily floating near 
the shore; and the plotters began to gather, 
two or three at a time strolling down towards 
the shore, each of them carrying some weapon. 

But in some way Captain Moore discovered 
their purpose. What bird in the air whispered 
to him the secret we do not know, but he sud- 
denly sprang to his feet, called to his officers 
to follow him, and leaped like a cat through the 



14 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

church window, without waiting to go round 
by the door. We may be sure the old-fashioned 
preacher and the pious people in the pews 
looked on with wide-open eyes. 

Down the street like a deer sped the captain. 
After him came his officers. In their rear 
rushed the patriots, some carrying old mus- 
kets, some with scythes and reaping-hooks. 

It was a hot flight and a hot chase. Luckily 
for Captain Moore the guard on the schooner 
was wide-awake. He saw the countrymen 
chasing his captain, and at once loaded and 
fired a gun, whose ball went whistling over the 
head of the men of Maine. This was more 
than they looked for ; they held back in doubt ; 
some of them sought hiding places; before 
they could gain fresh courage, a boat put off 
from the schooner and took the captain and his 
officers on board. 

Captain Moore did not know what was 
wrong, but he thought he would frighten the 
people, at any rate. So his cannon thundered 
and balls came hurtling over the town. Then 
he drew up his anchor and sailed several miles 
down the bay, letting the anchor fall again 
near a high bank. Some of the townsmen fol- 



BRITISH SCHOONER CAPTURED 15 

lowed, and a man named Foster called from 
the bank, bidding him surrender. But the 
captain laughed at him, raised his anchor once 
more, and ran farther out into the bay. 

It looked as if the whole affair was at an end 
and the Margarctta safe. But the men of 
Machias were not yet at the end of their rope. 
There lay the lumber sloops, and where a 
schooner could go a sloop could follow. 

Early Monday morning four young men 
climbed to the deck of one of the sloops and 
cheered in a way that soon brought a crowd to 
the wharf. One of these was a bold, gallant 
fellow named Jeremiah O'Brien. 

"What is in the wind?" he asked. 

"We are going for the King's ship," said 
Wheaton, one of the men. "We can outsail 
her, and all we want is guns enough and men 
enough to take her." 

"My boys, we can do it," cried O'Brien in 
lusty tones, after hearing the plan. 

Everybody ran off for arms, but all they 
could find in the town were twenty guns, with 
enough powder and balls to make three shots 
for each. Their other weapons were thirteen 
pitchforks and twelve axes. Jerry O'Brien 



i6 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

was chosen captain, thirty-five of the most 
athletic men were selected, and the sloop put 
off before a fresh breeze for the first naval 
battle of the Revolution. 

It is likely that there were a few sailors 
among them, and no doubt their captain knew 
how to handle a sloop. But the most of them 
were landsmen, chiefly haymakers, for Ma- 
chias lay amid grassy meadows and the making 
of hay was its chief business. And there were 
some woodsmen, who knew well how to swing 
an axe. They were all bold men and true, 
who cared more for their country than for the 
King. 

When Captain Moore saw the sloop coming 
with its deck crowded with men he must have 
wondered what all this meant. What ailed 
these countrymen? Anyhow, he would not 
fight without knowing what he was fighting 
for, so he raised his anchor, set his sails, and 
made for the open sea. But he had hardly 
started when, in going about in the strong 
wind, the main boom swung across so sharply 
that it struck the backstays and broke short oflF. 

I fancy if any of us had been close by then 
we would have heard ringing cheers from the 



BRITISH SCHOONER CAPTURED 17 

Yankee crew. They felt sure now of their 
prize, though we cannot see why, for the Mar- 
garetfa had twenty-four cannon, four throw- 
ing six-pound balls and the rest one-pound 
balls. Muskets and pitchforks did not seem of 
much use against these. It had also more men 
than the sloop. 

We cannot see why Captain Moore showed 
his heels instead of his fists, for he soon proved 
that he was no coward. But he still seemed 
to want to get away, so he drew up beside a 
schooner that lay at anchor, robbed it of its 
boom, lashed it to his own mast and once more 
took to flight. But the sloop was now not far 
behind, and soon showed that it was the better 
sailer of the two. In the end it came so close 
that Captain Moore was forced to fight or yield. 

One of the swivel guns was fired, and then 
came a whole broadside, sending its balls hurt- 
ling over the crowded deck of the sloop. One 
man fell dead, but no other harm was done. 

Only a single shot was fired back, but this 
came from a heavy gun and was aimed by an 
old hunter. It struck the man at the helm of 
the schooner. He fell dead, letting the rudder 
swing loose. 



1 8 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

The Margaretta, with no hand at her helm, 
broached to, and in a minute more the sloop 
came crashing against her. At once there 
began a fierce battle between the British tars 
and the haymakers of Maine, who sprang 
wildly and with ringing cheers for the schoon- 
er's deck. Weapons of all sorts now came into 
play. Cutlasses, hand-grenades, pistols and 
boarding pikes were used by the schooner's 
men; muskets, pitchforks, and axes were skil- 
fully handled by the crew of the sloop. Men 
fast fell dead and wounded ; the decks grew red 
with blood ; both sides fought fiercely, the men 
of Machias striving like tigers to gain a foot- 
ing on the schooner's deck, the British tars 
meeting and driving them back. 

Captain Moore showed that it was not fear 
that made him run away. He now fought 
bravely at the head of his men, cheering them 
on and hurling hand-grenades at the foe. 

But in a few minutes the end came. A 
bullet struck the gallant captain and he fell 
dead on his deck. When they saw him fall the 
crew lost heart and drew back. The Yankees 
swarmed over the bulwarks. In a minute more 
the Margaretta was theirs. 



BRITISH SCHOONER CAPTURED 19 

The battle, though short, had been desperate, 
for twenty men lay killed and wounded, more 
than a fourth of the whole number engaged. 

As Bunker Hill showed British soldiers that 
the Yankees could fight on land, so the capture 
of the Margaretta, the first naval victory of 
the Americans, showed that they could fight at 
sea. The Margaretta was very much the 
stronger, in men, in guns, and in her trained 
officers and skilled crew. Yet she had been 
taken by a party of landsmen, with muskets 
against cannon and pitchforks against pistols. 
It was a victory of which the colonists could 
well be proud. _ 

But Captain O'Brien was not yet satisfied. 
He had now a good sloop under his feet, a 
good crew at his back, and the arms and am- 
munition of his prize. He determined to go 
a-privateering on his own account. 

Taking the Margaretta to the town, he 
handed over his prisoners and put the cannon 
and swivels of the schooner on his swifter 
sloop, together with the muskets, pistols, pow- 
der, and shot which he found on board. Then 
away he went, with a bold and daring crew, In 
search for prizes and glory. 



20 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

He soon found both. When the news of 
what he had done reached Hahfax, the British 
there sent out two schooners, with orders to 
capture the insolent Yankee and bring him to 
port and to prison. But Captain O'Brien 
showed that he knew how to handle a sloop as 
well as a pitchfork. He met the schooners 
sent to capture him, and by skilful sailing man- 
aged to separate them. Then he made a bold 
dash on each of them and in a little time cap- 
tured them both. 



CHAPTER III 

BENEDICT ARNOLD, THE SOLDIER- 
SAILOR 



A Novel Fight on Lake Champlain 

WAS it not a dreadful pity that Benedict 
Arnold should disgrace himself for- 
ever by becoming a traitor to his 
country? To think of his making himself the 
most despised of all Americans, when, if he 
had been true to his flag, he might have been 
ranked among our greatest heroes. For Ar- 
nold was one of the best and bravest fighters 
in Washington's army. And he could fight as 
hard and well on water as on land, as you will" 
learn when you read of what he did on Lake 
Champlain. 

I am sure all my readers must know where 
this lake is, and how it stretches down in a 
long line from Canada far into New York 
State. Below Lake Champlain extends Lake 
George, and not very far from that is the 

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22 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

Hudson River, which flows down to the City 
of New York. 

If the British could only have held that line 
of water they would have cut the colonies in 
two, and in that way they might soon have 
brought the war to an end. This was what 
they tried to do in the fall of 1776, but they 
did not count on Arnold and his men. 

Let us tell what brought this about. Gen- 
eral Arnold and General Montgomery had 
marched through the wilderness to Quebec in 
the winter before. But there they met with 
bitter weather and deadly disease and death 
from cold and cannon. The brave Montgom- 
ery was killed, the daring Arnold fought in 
vain, and in the end the invading army was 
forced to march back — all that was left of it. 

As the Americans went back, Sir Guy Carle- 
ton, the British commander, followed, and 
made his camp at St. John's, at the north end 
of Lake Champlain. The nearest American 
post was at Crown Point, far down towards 
the foot of the lake. Not far south of this, 
near the head of Lake George, was the famous 
old French fort Ticonderoga, which Arnold 
and Ethan Allen had captured from the British 



ARNOLD, THE SOLDIER-SAILOR 23 

the year before. I tell you all this that you 
may know how the land lay. A glance at a 
good map will help. 

I think it very likely that some of you may 
have visited those beautiful lakes, and seen the 
towns and villages on their shores, the hand- 
some dwelling on their islands, and the broad 
roads along their banks; everything gay and 
smiling. 

If you had been there in 1776 you would 
have seen a very different sight. Look right 
or left, east or west, nothing but a wilderness 
of trees would have met your eyes. As for 
roads, I fancy an Indian trail would have been 
the best to be found. And no man that wished 
to keep his scalp on his head would have 
thought of living on island or shore. 

The only good road southward was the liquid 
one made by nature, and this road Carleton 
decided to take. He would build a strong fleet 
and carry his army down the lake, while the 
Indians that came with him could paddle 
downward in their canoes. 

At this time there was not a vessel on the 
lakes, but Carleton worked hard, and soon had 
such a fleet as these waters had never seen. 



24 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

Three of his ships were built in England in 
such a way that they could be taken to pieces, 
carried through the wilderness to St. John's, 
and there put together again. The smaller 
vessels were built on the spot, soldiers, sailors, 
and farmers all working on them. 

It was well on in October before his task 
was finished. Then he had a fleet of twenty- 
five vessels in all, twenty of them being gun- 
boats, but some of them quite large. Their 
crews numbered a thousand men, and they car- 
ried eighty-nine cannon. 

You may well suppose that the Americans 
knew what was going on, and that they did 
not fold their hands and wait. That is not, 
and never was, the American way. If the 
British could build, so could the Yankees, and 
Benedict Arnold was ordered to build a fleet, 
and to have it ready for fighting the British 
when it would be needed. 

Arnold had been at sea in his time and knew 
something of what he was about. His men 
were farmers who had taken up arms for their 
country, but he sent for a few shipbuilders 
from the coast and went to work with all his 
might. 



ARNOLD, THE SOLDIER-SAILOR 25 

When October came he had fifteen vessels 
afloat. There were two schooners and one 
sloop, the others being called galleys and gon- 
dolas — no better than large rowboats, with 
three to six guns each. 

Arnold had about as many guns as Carle- 
ton, but they were smaller, and he had not 
nearly so many men to handle them. And his 
men were farmers instead of sailors, and knew 
no more about a cannon than about a king's 
crown. But the British ships were manned 
by picked seamen from the warships in the 
St. Lawrence River, and had trained naval 
officers. 

I fear if any of us had been in Arnold's 
place we would have wanted to go home. It 
looked like folly for him and his men to fight 
the British fleet with its skilled officers and 
sailors and its heavy guns. It was like meet- 
ing a raft of logs with one of chips. 

But Arnold was not a man who stopped to 
count the cost when fighting was to be had. 
As soon as he was ready he set sail boldly up 
the lake, and on the morning of October 11, 
1776, he drew up his little fleet across a nar- 
row channel between Valcour Island and the 



26 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

west shore of the lake. He knew the British 
would soon be down. 

It was a fine, clear, cool morning, with a 
strong wind from the north, just the kind of 
day Carleton had been waiting for. So, soon 
after sunrise, his fleet came sweeping on past 
\^alcour Island. But all the sailors saw was a 
thicket of green trees, and they had got well 
south of the island before they looked back and 
saw the American fleet. 

Here was an ugly situation. It would never 
do to leave the Americans in their rear. Down 
went the helms, round swept the sails, out came 
the oars, and soon the British fleet was making 
a struggle against the wind which had seemed 
so fair a few minutes before. So strong was 
the breeze that ten o'clock had passed before 
they reached the channel in which the Amer- 
icans lay. Arnold came eagerly to meet them, 
with the Royal Savage, his largest vessel, and 
three of his gondolas. One of these, the Con- 
gress, he had made his flag-ship. Soon the 
waters of that quiet bay rang with the roar of 
cannon and the shouts of fighting men. and 
Arnold, having drawn the fire of the whole 
British fleet, was obliged to hurry back. 



ARNOLD, THE SOLDIER-SAILOR 27 

In doing so he met with a serious loss. The 
Royal Savage, pierced by a dozen balls, ran 
ashore on the island. As she could not be got 
oft", the crew set her on fire and escaped to the 
woods. They might better have leaped into 
the lake, for the woods were full of Indians 
whom Carleton had sent ashore; and to be a 
prisoner to Indians in those days was a terrible 
fate. 

When he got back to his fleet, Arnold 
formed his line to meet the "British, who came 
steadily on until within musket shot. Then a 
furious battle began, broadside meeting broad- 
side, grape-shot and round-shot hurtling 
through the air, the thick smoke of the conflict 
drifting into the woodland, while from the 
forest came back flame and bullets as the In- 
dians fought for their British friends. 

Arnold, on the deck of the Congress, led in 
the thickest of the fight, handling his fleet as 
if he had been an admiral born, cheering the 
men at the guns, aiming and firing a gun at 
intervals himself, and not yielding a foot to 
the foe. Now and then a gun was fired at the 
Indians, forcing them to skip nimbly behind 
the trees. 



28 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

For six long hours the battle kept up at close 
quarters. This is what Arnold says about it in 
few words : "At half-past twelve the engage- 
ment became general and very warm. Some 
of the enemy's ships and all their gondolas 
beat and rowed up within musket shot of us. 
They continued a very hot fire with round and 
grape-shot until five o'clock, when they thought 
proper to retire to about six or seven hundred 
yards distance, and continued the fire till dark." 

Hot as their fire was, they must have found 
that of the Americans hotter, for they went 
back out of range of the Yankee guns, but kept 
within range of their own. 

Arnold's vessels were in a bad plight. Sev- 
eral of them were as full of holes as a pepper 
bottle, and one sank soon after the fight ended. 
But two of the British gunboats had been sunk 
and one blown up. The worst for the Amer- 
icans was that nearly all their powder was 
gone. They could not fight an hour more. 

Perilous as was the situation, Admiral Ar- 
nold was equal to it. The night came on dark 
and stormy, with a hard gale from the north. 
This was just what he wanted. Up came the 
anchors and away went the boats, one after 



ARNOLD, THE SOLDIER-SAILOR 29 

the other in a long Hne, each showing a Hght 
to the vessel that followed, but hiding it from 
British eyes. In this way they slipped unseen \ 
through the British line, Arnold in the Con- 
gress taking the post of danger in the rear. 

When morning dawned the British look- 
outs gazed for the American fleet, it was no- 
where to be seen. It had vanished in the night 
and now was ten miles down the lake, where 
it was drawn up near shore for repairs. 

Two of the gondolas proved to be past mend- 
ing, and were sunk. The others were patched 
up until they could be kept afloat without too 
much pumping, and the fleet started on, hoping 
to gain the shelter of Crown Point or Ticon- 
deroga. The wind had changed to the south, 
and they had to take to their oars. This kept 
them back, but it gave the British quite as much 
trouble. That day passed away and the next 
day, Friday, dawned before the pursuers came 
in sight. And "now a chase began with oar 
and sail, and continued till noon, when Crown 
Point was still some leagues away. By this 
time the British cannon balls began to reach 
the American boats, and the tired rowers were 
forced to turn to their guns and fight. 



so OUR NAVAL HEROES 

Never did sea-hero fight more gallantly than 
did the soldier Arnold that day. The first 
British broadside ruined the gondola IVasJi- 
ington and forced it to surrender. But Arnold 
in the little Congress drew up beside the In- 
Hcxihle, a 300-ton ship with eighteen im- 
pounder cannon, and fought the ship with his 
little gunboat as if they had been of equal 
strength. Inspired by his example, the other 
boats fought as bravely. 

Not until a third of his men were dead and 
his boat a mere wreck did he give up the fight. 
But not to surrender — no such thought came 
into his mind. By his order the galleys were 
run ashore in a creek nearby and there set on 
fire. With the three guns of the shattered 
Congress he covered their retreat until their 
crews were safe on shore. 

Then, reckless of the British shot, he ran the 
Congress ashore also and stood guard at her 
stern while the crew set her on fire. The men 
by his orders sought the shore, but Arnold 
stood by his fllag to the last, not leaving until 
the flames had such hold that he was sure no 
Briton's hand could strike his flag. It would 
float until it went up in flames. 



ARNOLD, THE SOLDIER-SAILOR 31 

Then he sprang into the water, waded 
ashore, and joined his men, who greeted him 
with cheers. 

The savages were swarming in the woods, 
eager for scalps, but Arnold was not troubled 
by fear of them. Forming his men into order, 
he marched them through the woods, and 
before night reached safety at Crown Point. 

Thus ended one of the noblest fights the 
inland waters of America ever saw. The 
British were victors, though at a heavy cost. 
Arnold had fought until his fleet was anni- 
hilated; and not in vain. Carleton sailed back 
to St. John's and made his way to Canada. He 
had seen enough of Yankee pluck. Thus Ar- 
nold, though defeated, gained by his valor the 
fruit of victory, for the British gave up their 
plan of holding the lake. 



CHAPTER IV 

CAPTAIN PAUL JONES 



The Greatest of America's Naval Heroes 

ONCE upon a time there lived in Scotland a 
poor gardener named John Paul, who 
had a little son to whom he gave the 
same name. The rich man's garden that the 
father took care of was close by the sea, and 
little John Paul came to love blue water so 
much that he spent most of his time near it, 
and longed to be a sailor. 

He lived in his father's cottage near the sea 
until he was twelve years old. Then he was 
put to work in a big town on the other side of 
the Solway Firth. This town was called 
Whitehaven. It was a very busy place, and 
ships and sailors were there in such numbers 
that the little fellow, who had been put in a 
store, greatly liked to go down to the docks 
and talk with the seamen who had been in so 
many different lands and seas and who could 

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CAPTAIN PAUL JONES S3 

tell him all about the wonderful and curious 
places they had seen, and about their adven- 
tures on the great oceans they had sailed 
over. 

In the end the boy made up his mind to go 
to sea. He studied all about ships and how to 
sail them. He read all the books he could get, 
and often, when other boys were asleep or in 
mischief, he was learning from the books he 
read many things that helped him when he 
grew older. At last he had his wish. ,When 
he was only thirteen years old, he was put as a 
sailor boy on a ship called the Fnendship. 

The vessel was bound to Virginia, in Amer- 
ica, for a cargo of tobacco, and the young 
sailor greatly enjoyed the voyage and was 
especially delighted with the new country 
across the sea. He wished he could live in 
America, and hoped some day to go there 
again. 

When this first voyage was over, he re- 
turned to Whitehaven and went back to the 
store. But soon after, the merchant who 
owned the store failed in business, and the boy 
was out of a place and had to look out for him- 
self. This time he became a real seaman. For 



34 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

many years he served as a common sailor. He 
proved such a good one that before he was 
twenty years old he was a captain. This was 
how he became one: While the ship in which 
he was sailing was in the middle of the Atlantic 
Ocean, a terrible fever broke out. The captain 
died. The mate, who comes next to the cap- 
tain, died ; all of the sailors were sick, and some 
of them died. There was no one who kneW 
about sailing such a big vessel, except young 
John Paul. So he took command and sailed 
the ship into port without an accident, and the 
owners were so glad that they made the young 
sailor captain of the ship which he had saved 
for them. 

John Paul was not the only one of his family 
who loved America. He had a brother who 
had crossed the ocean and was living in Vir- 
ginia, on the banks of the Rappahannock River. 
This was the same river beside which George 
Washington lived when a boy. The young 
captain visited his brother several times while 
he was sailing on his voyages, and he liked the 
country so much that, when his brother died, 
he gave up being a sailor for a while, and went 
to hve on his brother's farm. 



CAPTAIN PAUL JONES 35 

When he became a farmer, he changed his 
name to Jones. Why he did so nobody knows. 
But he ever after bore the name of John Paul 
Jones. He made this one of the best known 
names in the history of the seas. 

I doubt if he was a very good farmer. He 
was too much of a sailor for that. So, when 
the American Revolution began, he was eager 
to fight the British on the seas. There was no 
nation at that time so powerful on the sea as 
England. The King had a splendid fleet of 
ships of war — almost a thousand. The United 
States had none. But soon the Americans got 
together five little ships, and sent them out as 
the beginning of the American navy, to fight 
the ships of England. 

John Paul Jones was made first lieutenant of 
a ship called the Alfred. He had the good 
fortune to hoist for the first time on any ship, 
the earliest American flag. This was a great 
yellow silk flag which had on it the picture of a 
pine tree with a rattlesnake coiled around it, 
and underneath were the words : "Don't tread 
on me !" 

Then the grand union flag of the colonies 
was set. This had thirteen red and white 



Z6 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

stripes, like our present flag, but, instead of 
the stars, in the corner it had the British 
"union jack." Thus there was a hnk on the 
flag between the colonies and England. They 
had not quite cut apart. 

Jones had first been offered the command of 
the Providence, a brig that bore twelve guns 
and had a crew of one hundred men. But he 
showed the kind of man he was by saying that 
he did not know enough to be a captain, and 
was hardly fit to be a first lieutenant. That 
was how he came to be made first lieutenant of 
the Alfred. Congress took him at his own 
price. 

But Commodore Hopkins, who commanded 
the fleet, was wise enough to see that Jones 
knew more about his work than most of the 
captains in the service. So he ordered him to 
take command of the Providence, the snug 
little brig that had first been offered to him. 

The new captain was set at work to carrying 
troops and guarding merchant vessels along 
the shore, and he did this with wonderful skill. 
There were British men-of-war nearly every- 
where, but Jones managed to keep clear of 
them. He darted up and down Long Island 




John Paul Jones. 



CAPTAIN PAUL JONES 37 

Sound, carrying soldiers and guns and food to 
General Washington. So well did he do his 
work that Congress made him a captain. This 
was on August 8, 1776, a month and more 
after the ''Declaration of Independence." He 
had a free country now to fight for, instead of 
rebel colonies. 

The Providence was a little vessel, but it was 
a fast sailer, and was wonderfully quick to 
answer the helm. That is, it turned very 
quickly when the rudder was moved. And it 
had a captain who knew how to sail a ship. 
All this brought the little brig out of more 
than one tight place. 

I must tell you about one of these escapes, in 
which Captain Jones showed himself a very 
sharp sea-fox. He came across a fleet of ves- 
sels which he thought were merchant ships, 
and had a fancy he might capture the largest! 
But when he got close up he found that this 
was a big British frigate, the Solehay. 

Away went the Providence at full speed, and 
hot-foot after her came the Solehay. For four 
hours the chase was kept up, the frigate 
steadily gaining. At last she was only a hun- 
dred yards away. Now was the time to sur- 



38 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

render. Nearly any one but Paul Jones would 
have done so. A broadside from the great 
frigate would have torn his little brig to pieces. 
But he was one of the "never surrender" kind. 

What else could he do? you ask. Well, I 
will tell you what he did. He quietly made 
ready to set all his extra sails, and put a man 
with a lighted match at each cannon, and had 
another ready to hoist the union flag. 

Then, with a quick turn of the helm, the 
little brig swung round like a top across the 
frigate's bows. As she did so all the guns on 
that side sent their iron hail sweeping across 
the deck of the Solebay. In a minute more 
the studding sails were set on both sides, like 
broad white wings, and away went the Provi- 
dence as swift as a racer, straight before the 
wind and with the American flag proudly 
flying. The officers and men of the frigate 
were so upset by the sudden dash and attack 
that they did not know what to do. Before 
they came to their senses the brig was out of 
reach of their shot. Off like a bird she went, 
now quite outsailing her pursuer. The Sole- 
bay, fired more than a hundred iron balls after 
her, but they only scared the fishes. 



CAPTAIN PAUL JONES 39 

It was not long before Captain Jones found 
another big British ship on his track. He was 
now off the coast of Nova Scotia, and as there 
was nothing else to do, he let his men have a 
day's sport in fishing for codfish. Fish are 
plenty in those waters, and they were pulling 
them up in a lively fashion when a strange sail 
rose in sight. 

When it came well up Captain Jones saw It 
was a British frigate, and judged it time to pull 
in his fishing lines and set sail on his little craft. 
Away like a deer went the brig, and after her 
like a hound came the ship. But it soon proved 
that the deer was faster than the hound, and so 
Captain Jones began to play with the big fri- 
gate. He took in some of his sails and kept 
just out of reach. 

The Milford, which was the name of the 
British ship, kept firing at the Providence, but 
all her shot plunged into the waves. It was 
like the hound barking at the deer. And every 
time the Milford sent a broadside, Paul Jones 
replied with a musket. After he had all the 
fun he wanted out of the lumbering frigate, he 
spread all sail again and soon left her out of 
sight. 



40 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

We cannot tell the whole stOry of the cruise 
of the Providence. In less than two months it 
captured sixteen vessels and burned some 
others. Soon after that Jones was made cap- 
tain of the Alfred, the ship on which he had 
raised the first flag. With this he took a splen- 
did prize, the brig Mellish, on which were ten 
thousand uniforms for the British soldiers. 
Many a ragged soldier in Washington's army 
thanked him that winter for a fine suit of warm 
clothing. 

Let us tell one more fine thing that Captain 
Jones did in American waters before he crossed 
the ocean to the British seas. Sailing along 
the coast of Canada he came upon a fleet of 
coal vessels, with a British frigate to take care 
of them. But it was foggy and the coalers 
were scattered ; so that Jones picked up three of 
them while the frigate went on with her eyes 
shut, not knowing that anything was wrong. 

Two days afterward he came upon a Brit- 
ish privateer, which was on the hunt for 
American vessels. But when the Alfred came 
up, before more than a few shots had been 
fired, down came its flag. 

Captain Jones now thought it time to get 



CAPTAIN PAUL JONES 41 

home. His ship was crowded with prisoners, 
he was short of food and water, and he had 
four prizes to look after, which were manned 
with some of his crew. 

But he was not to get home without another 
adventure; for, late one afternoon, there came 
in sight the frigate Milford, the one which he 
had saluted with musket balls. He could not 
play with her now, for he had his prizes to 
look after, and while he could outsail her, the 
prizes could not. 

So he told the captains of the prizes to keep 
on as they were, no matter what signals he 
made. Night soon came, and the Alfred sailed 
on, with two lanterns swinging in her tops. 
Soon she changed her course and the Milford 
followed. No doubt her captain thought that 
the Yankee had lost his wits, to sail on with 
lanterns blazing and make it easy to keep in 
his track. 

But when morning dawned the British cap- 
tain found he had been tricked. The Alfred 
was in sight, but all the prizes were gone ex- 
cept the privateer, whose stupid captain had 
not obeyed orders. The result was that the 
privateer was recaptured. But the Alfred 



42 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

easily kept ahead. That afternoon a squall of 
snow came upon the sea, and the Yankee craft, 
"amid clouds and darkness and foaming 
surges, made her escape." 

In a few days more the Alfred sailed into 
Boston. There his ship was given another cap- 
tain, and for six months he had nothing to do. 
Congress was full of politicians who were 
looking out for their friends, and the best 
seaman in the American navy was left sitting 
at home biting his thumb nails and whistling 
for a ship. 

I have not told you here the whole story of 
our greatest naval hero. I have not told you 
even the best part of his story, that part which 
has made him famous in all history, and put 
him on a level with the most celebrated sea 
fighters of all time. 

The exploits of Paul Jones cover two seas, 
those of America and those of England, and 
in both he proved himself a brilliant sailor 
and a daring fighter. I think you will say this 
from what you have already read. His deeds 
of skill and bravery on our own coast were 
wonderful, and if they had stood alone would 
have given him great fame. But it was in 



CAPTAIN PAUL JONES 43 

the waters and on the shores of England that 
he showed the whole world what a man he 
was; and now, when men talk of the great 
heroes of the sea, the name of John Paul Jones 
always stands first. This is the story we have 
next to tell, how Captain Jones crossed the 
ocean and bearded the British lion in his den. 



CHAPTER V 

HOW PAUL TONES WON RENOWN 



The First Great Fight of the American 
Navy 

YOU have been told how Captain Paul Jones 
lost his ship. He was given another in 
June. 1777. This was the Ranger, a 
frigate carrying twenty-six ginis, but it was 
such a slow old tub that our captain was not 
well pleased with his new craft. He did not 
want to run away from the British ; he wanted 
a ship that was fit to chase an enemy. 

^^> have one thing very interesting to tell. 
On the very day that Jones got his new ship 
Congress adopted a new flag, the American 
standard with its thirteen stars and thirteen 
stripes. As soon as he heard of the new flag. 
Captain Jones had one made in all haste, and 
with his own hands he ran it up to the mast- 
head of the Ranger. So she was the first ship 
that ever carried the "Stars and Stripes." Is 

(44) 



HOW PAUL JONES WON RENOWN 45 

it not interesting that the man who first raised ] 
the pine-tree flag of the colonies was the first / 
to fling out to the breeze the star-spangled flag ' 
of the American Union? 

Captain Jones was ordered to sail for France, 
but it took so long to get the Ranger ready for 
sea that it was winter before he reached there. 
Benjamin Franklin and other Americans were 
there in France and were having a fine new 
frigate built for Paul Jones. But when Eng- 
land heard of it such a protest was made that 
the French government stopped the work on 
the ship, and our brave captain had to go to 
sea again in the slow-footed Ranger. 

He had one satisfaction. He sailed through 
the French fleet at Ouileron Bay and saluted 
the French flag. The French admiral could 
not well help returning his salute. That was 
the first time the Stars and Stripes were sa- 
luted by a foreign power. 

What Captain Jones proposed to do was the 
boldest thing any American captain could do. 
England was invading America. He proposed 
to invade England. That is, he would cruise 
along the British coast, burning ships and 
towns, and thus do there what the British had 



46 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

done along the American coast. He wanted 
to let them find how they liked it themselves. 

It was a daring plan. The British channel 
was full of war-vessels. If they got on the 
track of his slow ship he could not run away. 
He would never think of running from one 
ship, but there might be a fleet. However, 
Paul Jones was the last man in the world to 
think of danger; so he put boldly out to sea, 
and took his chances. 

It was not long before he had all England in 
a state of alarm. News came that this daring 
American war-ship was taking prize after 
prize, burning some and sending their crews 
ashore. He would hide along the English 
coast from the men-of-war that went out in 
search, and then suddenly dart out and seize 
some merchant ship. 

The English called Captain Jones a pirate 
and all sorts of hard names. But they were 
very much afraid of him and his stout ship. 
And this voyage of his, along the shores 
of England, taught them to respect and fear 
the American sailors more than they had ever 
done before. 

After he had captured many British vessels, 



HOW PAUL JONES WON RENOWN 47 

almost in sight of their homes, he boldly sailed 
to the north and into the very port of White- 
haven, where he had "tended store," as a boy, 
and from which he had first gone to sea. He 
knew all about the place. He knew how many 
vessels were there, and what a splendid vic- 
tory he could win for the American navy, if 
he could sail into Whitehaven harbor and cap- 
ture or destroy the two hundred vessels that 
were anchored within sight of the town he 
remembered so well. 

With two rowboats and thirty men he 
landed at Whitehaven, locked up the soldiers 
in the forts, fixed the cannon so that they could 
not be fired, set fire to one of the vessels that 
were in the harbor, and so frightened all the 
people that, though the gardener's son stood 
alone on the wharf, waiting for a boat to take 
him ofif, not a man dared to lay a hand on 
him. With a single pistol he kept back a thou- 
sand men. 

Then he sailed across the bay to the house 
of the great lord for whom his father had 
worked as a gardener. He meant to run away 
with this nobleman, and keep him prisoner 
until the British promised to treat better the 



48 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

Americans whom they had taken prisoners. 
But the lord wliom he went for was "not at 
home," so all that Captain Jones's men could 
do was to carry off from the big house the 
silverware of the earl. Captain Jones did not 
like this ; so he took the things from his men 
and returned them to Earl Selkirk, with a let- 
ter asking him to excuse his sailors. 

Not long afterward one of the British men- 
of-war which were in the hunt for Captain 
Jones, found him. This was the Drake, a 
larger ship than the Ranger and carrying more 
men. But that did not trouble Paul Jones, and 
soon there was a terrible fight. The sails of 
the Drake were cut to pieces, her decks were 
red with blood, and at last her captain fell 
dead. In an hour after the fight began, just 
as the sun was going down behind the Irish 
hills, there came a cry for quarter from the 
Drake, and the battle was at an end. Off went 
Captain Jones, with his ship and his prize, for 
the friendly shores of France, where he was 
received with great praise. 

Soon after this the French decided to help 
the Americans in their war for independence. 
After some time Captain Jones was put in com- 



HOW PAUL JONES WON RENOWN 49 

mand of five ships, and back he sailed to 
England to fight the British ships again. 

The vessel in which he sailed w^as the big- 
gest of the five ships. It had forty guns and 
a crew of three hundred sailors. Captain 
Jones thought so much of the great Dr. Ben- 
jamin Franklin, who had written a book of 
good advice, under the name of "Poor Richard," 
that he named his big ship for Dr. Franklin. 
He called it the Bon Homme Richard, which 
is French for "good man Richard." But the 
Bon Homme Richard was not a good boat, 
if it was a big one. It was old and rotten and 
leaky, and not fit for a war-ship, but its new 
commander made the best he could of it. 

The little fleet sailed up and down the Eng- 
lish coasts, capturing a few prizes, and greatly 
frightening the people by saying that they 
had come to burn some of the big English sea 
towns. Then, just as they were about sailing 
back to France, they came — near an English 
cape, called Flamborough Head — upon an 
English fleet of forty merchant vessels and 
two war ships. 

One of the war ships was a great English 
frigate, called the Serapis, finer and stronger 



50 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

in every way than the Bon Homme Richard. 
But Captain Jones would not run away. 

''What ship is that?" called out the Eng- 
lishman. "Come a little nearer, and we'll tell 
you," answered plucky Captain Jones. 

The British ships did come a little nearer. 
The forty merchant vessels sailed as fast as 
they could to the nearest harbor, and then the 
warships had a terrible battle. 

At seven o'clock in the evening the British 
frigate and the Bon Homme Richard began to 
fight. They banged and hammered away for 
hours, and then, when the British captain 
thought he must have beaten the Americans, 
and it was so dark and smoky that they could 
only see each other by the fire flashes, he called 
out to the American captain : "Are you beaten ? 
Have you hauled down your flag?" 

And back came the answer of Captain John 
Paul Jones : "I haven't begun to fight yet !" 

So they went at it again. The two ships 
were now lashed together, and they tore each 
other like savage dogs in a fight. 

The rotten old Richard suffered terribly. 
Two of her great guns had burst at the first 
fire, and she was shot through and through 



HOW PAUL JONES WON RENOWN 51 

by the Serapis until most of her timbers above 
the water-Hne were shot away. The British 
rushed on board with pistols and cutlasses, and 
the Americans drove them back. But the 
Richard was on fire; water was pouring in 
through a dozen shot holes; it looked as if she 
must surrender, brave as were her captain and 
crew. There were on board the old ship nearly 
two hundred prisoners who had been taken 
from captured vessels, and so pitiful were their 
cries that one of the officers set them free, 
thinking that the ship was going to sink and 
that they ought to have a chance f®r their 
lives. These men were running up on 
deck, adding greatly to the trouble of Captain 
Jones; for he had now a crowd of enemies on 
his own ship. But the prisoners were so 
scared that they did not know what to do. 
They saw the ship burning around them and 
heard the water pouring into the hold, and 
thought they would be carried to the bottom. 
So to keep them from mischief they were set 
to work, some at the pumps, others at 
putting out the fire. And to keep the ship 
from blowing up, if the fire should reach the 
magazine, Captain Jones set men at bringing 



52 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

up the kegs of powder and throwing them into 
the sea. Never was there a ship in so desper- 
ate a strait, and there was hardly a man on 
board, except Captain Jones, who did not want 
to surrender. 

But the British were not having it all their 
own way. The American tars had climbed the 
masts and were firing down with muskets 
and flinging down hand grenades, until all 
the British had to run from the upper deck. 
A hand grenade is a small, hollow iron ball 
filled with powder, which explodes when 
thrown down and sends the bits of iron flying 
all around, like so many bullets. 

One sailor took a bucketful of these and 
crept far out on the yard-arm of the ship, and 
began to fling them down on the gun-deck of 
the Serapis, where they did much damage. 
At last one of them went through the open 
hatchway to the main deck, where a crowd of 
men were busy working the great guns, and 
cartridges were lying all about and loose 
powder was scattered on the floor. 

The grenade set fire to this powder, and in a 
second there was a terrible explosion. A 
great sheet of flame burst up through the 



HOW PAUL JONES WON RENOWN 53 

hatchway, and frightful cries came from be- 
low. In that dreadful moment more than 
twenty men were killed and many more were 
wounded. All the guns on that deck had to 
be abandoned. There were no men left to 
work them. 

Where was Captain Jones all the time, and 
what was he doing? You may be sure he was 
busy. He had taken a gun and loaded it with 
double-headed shot, and kept firing at the 
mainmast of the Serapis. Every shot cut a 
piece out of the mast, and after a while it came 
tumbling upon the deck, with all its spars and 
rigging. The tarred ropes quickly caught 
fire, and the ship was in flames. 

At this moment up came the Alliance, one 
of Captain Jones's fleet. He now thought that 
the battle was at an end, but to his horror the 
Alliance, instead of firing at the British ship, 
began to pour its broadsides into his own. He 
called to them for God's sake to quit firing, 
but they kept on, killing some of his best men 
and making several holes under water, 
through which new floods poured into the ship. 
The Alliance had a French captain who hated 
Paul Jones and wanted to sink his ship. 



54 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

Both ships were now in flames, and water 
rushed into the Richard faster than the pumps 
could keep it out. Some of the officers begged 
Captain Jones to pull down his flag and sur- 
render, but he would not give up. He thought 
there was always a chance while he had a deck 
under his feet. 

Soon the cowardly French traitor quit firing 
and sailed off, and Paul Jones began his old 
work again, firing at the Serapis as if the bat- 
tle had just begun. This was more than the 
British captain could bear. His ship was a 
mere wreck and was blazing around him, so 
he ran on deck and pulled down his flag with 
his own hands. The terrible battle was at an 
end. The British ship had given up the fight. 

Lieutenant Dale sprang on board the 
Serapis, went up to Captain Pearson, the Brit- 
ish commander, and asked him if he surren- 
dered. The Englishman replied that he had, 
and then he and his chief officer went aboard 
the battered Richard, which was sinking even 
in its hour of victory. 

But Captain Jones stood on the deck of his 
sinking vessel, proud and triumphant. He 
had shown what an American captain and 



HOW PAUL JONES WON RENOWN 55 

American sailors could do, even when every- 
thing was against them. The English cap- 
tain gave up his sword to the American, 
which is the way all sailors and soldiers do 
when they surrender their ships or their 
armies. 

The fight had been a brave one, and the Eng- 
lish King knew that his captain had made a 
bold and desperate resistance, even if he had 
been whipped. So he rewarded Captain Pear- 
son, when he at last returned to England, by 
making him a Knight, thus giving him the 
title of "Sir." When Captain Jones heard of 
this he laughed, and said : "Well, if I can meet 
Captain Pearson again in a sea fight, Ell make 
him a lord." 

The poor Bon Homme Richard was such an 
utter wreck that she soon sank beneath the 
waves. But, even as she went down, the stars 
and stripes floated proudly from the masthead, 
in token of victory. 

Captain Jones, after the surrender, put all 
his men aboard the captured Serapis, and then 
off he sailed to the nearest friendly port, with 
his great prize and all his prisoners. This 
victory made him the greatest sailor in the 



S6 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

whole American war, and the most famous of 
all American seamen. 

Captain Jones took his prize into the Dutch 
port of Texel, closely followed by a British 
squadron. The country of Holland was not 
friendly to the Americans, and though they 
let him come in, he was told that he could not 
stay there. So he sailed again, in a howling 
gale, straight through the British squadron, 
with the American flag flying at his peak. 
Down through the narrow Straits of Dover he 
passed, coming so near the English shore that 
he could count the warships at anchor in the 
Downs. That was his way of showing how 
little he feared them. The English were so 
angry at Holland because it would not give up 
the Americans and their prizes that they de- 
clared war against that country. 

When Captain Jones reached Paris he was 
received with the greatest honor, and greeted 
as one of the ablest and bravest of sea-fighters. 

Everybody wished to see such a hero. He 
went to the King's court, and the King and 
Queen and French lords and ladies made much 
of him and gave him receptions, and said so 
many fine things about him that, if he had been 



HOW PAUL JONES WON RENOWN 57 

at all vain, it might have ''turned his head," as 
people say. But John Paul Jones was not 
vain. 

He was a brave sailor, and he was in France 
to get help and not compliments. He wished 
a new ship to take the place of the old Richard, 
which had gone to the bottom after its great 
victory. 

So, though the King of France honored him 
and received him splendidly and made him 
presents, he kept on working to get another 
ship. At last he was made captain of a new 
ship, called the Ariel, and sailed from France. 
He had a fierce battle with an English ship 
called the Triumph, and defeated her. But 
she escaped before surrendering, and Captain 
Jones sailed across the sea to America. 

He was received at home with great honor 
and applause. Congress gave him a vote of 
thanks, "for the zeal, prudence and intrepidity 
with which he had supported the honor of the 
American flag" — that is what the vote said. 

People everywhere crowded to see him, and 
called hinl hero and conqueror. Lafayette, 
the brave young Frenchman who came over 
to fight for America, called him "my dear 



58 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

Paul Jones," and Washington and the other 
leaders in America said, "Well done, Captain 
Jones!" 

The King of France sent him a splendid re- 
ward of merit called the "Cross of Honor," 
and Congress set about building a fine ship for 
him to command. But before it was finished, 
the war was over; and he was sent back to 
France on some important business for the 
United States. 

Here he was received with new honor, for 
the French knew how to meet and treat a brave 
man; and above all they loved a man who had 
humbled the English, their ancient foes. Cap- 
tain Jones had sailed from a French port and 
in a French ship, and they looked on him 
almost as one of their own. But all this did 
not make him proud or boastful, for he was 
not that kind of man. 

In later years Paul Jones served in Russia 
in the wars with the Turks. But the British 
officers who were in the Russian service re- 
fused to fight under him, saying that he was a 
rebel, a pirate, and a traitor. This was be- 
cause he had fought for America after being 
born in Scotland. So, after some hard fight- 



HOW PAUL JONES WON RENOWN 59 

ing, he left Russia and went back to France, 
where he died in 1792. 

In all the history of sea fighting we hear of 
no braver man, and the United States, so long 
as it is a nation, will be proud of and honor the 
memory of the gallant sailor, John Paul Jones. 



CHAPTER VI 

CAPTAIN BUSHNELL SCARES THE 
BRITISH 



The Pioneer Torpedo Boat and the Battle 
OF THE Kegs 

MANY of us, all our lives, have seen ves- 
sels of every size and shape darting to 
and fro over the water ; some with sails 
spread to the wind, others with puffing pipes 
and whirling wheels. 

And that is not all. Men have tried to go 
under water as well as on top. Some of you may 
have read Jules Verne's famous story, "Twenty 
Thousand Leagues under the Sea." That, of 
course, is all fiction; but now-a-days there are 
vessels which can go miles under the water 
without once coming to the top. 

We call these submarine boats, and look upon 
them as something very new. You may be 
surprised to learn that there was a submarine 
boat as long ago as the War of the Revolution. 

(60) 



BUSHNELL SCARES THE BRITISH 6i 

It was not a very good one, and did not do the 
work it was built for, but it was the first of its 
kind, and that is something worth knowing. 

Those of you who have studied history will 
know that after the British were driven out of 
Boston they came to New York with a large 
army, and took possession of that city. Wash- 
ington and his men could not keep them out, 
and had to leave. There the British lay, with 
their army in the city and their fleet in the bay 
and river, and there they stayed for years. 

There was an American who did not like to 
see British vessels floating in American waters. 
He knew he could not drive them away, but he 
thought he might give them some trouble. This 
was a Connecticut man named David Bushnell, 
a chap as sharp as a steeltrap, and one of the 
first American inventors. 

What Bushnell did was to invent a boat that 
would move under water and might be made to 
blow up an enemy's ship. As it was the first of 
this kind ever made, I am sure you will wish to 
know what it was like and how it was worked. 

He called it TJie American Turtle, for it 
looked much like a great swimming turtle, big 
enough to hold a man and also to carry a tor- 



62 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

pedo loaded with 150 pounds of gunpowder. 
This was to be fastened to the wooden bottom 
of a ship and then fired off. It was expected 
to blow a great hole in the bottom and sink 
the vessel. 

Of course, the boat was air-tight and water- 
tight, but it had a supply of fresh air that would 
last half an hour for one man. There was an 
oar for rowing and a rudder for steering. A 
valve in the bottom let in the water when the 
one-man crew wanted to sink his turtle-like 
boat, and there were two pumps to force the 
water out again when he wanted to rise. 

There were windows in the top shell of the 
turtle, air pipes to let out the foul air and take 
in fresh air, small doors that could be opened 
when at the surface, and heavy lead ballast to 
keep the turtle level. In fact, the affair was, 
for the time, very ingenious and complete. 

A very important part of it was the torpedo, 
with its 150 pounds of powder. This was car- 
ried outside, above the rudder. It was so made 
that when the boat came under a vessel the man 
inside could fasten it with a screw to the ves- 
sel's bottom, and row away and leave it there. 
Inside it was a clock, which could be set to run 



BUSHNELL SCARES THE BRITISH 63 

a certain time and then loosen a sort of gun- 
lock. This struck a spark and set fire to the 
powder, and up — or down — went the vessel. 

You can see that Dave Bushnell's invention 
was a very neat one ; but, for all that, luck went 
against it. He first tried his machine with 
only two pounds of powder on a hogshead 
loaded with stones. The powder was set on 
fire, and up went the stones and the boards of 
the hogshead and a body of water, many feet 
into the air. If two pounds of powder would 
do all this, what would one hundred and fifty 
pounds do? 

In 1776 the Turtle was sent out against a 
big British ship named the Eagle, anchored in 
New York Bay. The man inside rowed his 
boat very well under water, and after some 
time found himself beneath the King's ship. 
He now tried to fasten the torpedo to the bot- 
tom, but the screw struck an iron bar and 
would not go in. Then he moved to another 
place, but now he lost the ship altogether. He 
could not find her again, and he had to row 
away, for he could not stay much longer under 
water. 

There is a funny story told about the man 



64 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

in the Turtle. He was a queer fellow named 
Abijah Shipman, but called by his companions 
''Long Bige." 

As he entered the craft and was about to 
screw down its cover, he opened it again and 
asked for a chew of tobacco. All those present 
felt in their pockets, but none of the weed was 
on hand. 

"You will have to go without it, old chap," 
said General Putnam, who was present. "We 
Continental officers can't afford even a plug of 
tobacco. To-morrow, after you have sent the 
Eagle on her last flight, we will try and raise 
you a whole keg of the weed." 

"That's too bad," growled Bige. "Tell you 
what, Gineral, if the old Turtle don't do her 
duty, it's all along of me goin' out without 
tobacco." 

After he had gone Putnam and his officers 
watched anxiously for results. Time passed. 
Morning was at hand. The Eagle rode un- 
harmed. Evidently something had gone 
wrong. Had the torpedo failed, and was 
"Long Bige" resting in his wrecked machine 
on the bottom of the bay? Putnam swept the 
waters near the Eagle with his glass. Sud- 



BUSHNELL SCARES THE BRITISH 65 

denly he exclaimed. "There he is." The top 
of the Turtle had just emerged, some distance 
from the ship. 

Abijah, fearing that he might be seen, had 
cast off the torpedo that he might go the faster. 
The clock had been set to run an hour, and at 
the end of that time there was a thundering 
explosion near the fleet, hurling up great vol- 
umes of water into the air. 

Soon there were signs of fright in the ships. 
The anchors were raised, sails were set, and 
off they went to safer quarters down the bay. 
They did not care to be too near such danger- 
ous affairs as that. 

Boats were sent out to the aid of the Turtle 
and it was brought ashore at a safe place. On 
landing Abijah gave, in his queer way, the 
reasons for his failure. 

"It's just as I said, Gineral; it went to pot 
for want o' that cud of tobacco. You see, I'm 
mighty narvous without my tobacco. When I 
got under the ship's bottom, somehow the 
screw struck the iron bar that passes from the 
rudder pintle, and wouldn't hold on anyhow I 
could fix it. Just then I let go the oar to feel 
for a cud, to steady my narves, and I hadn't 



66 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

any. The tide swept me under her counter, 
and away I sHpped top o' water. I couldn't 
manage to get back, so I pulled the lock and 
let the thunder-box slide. That's what comes 
of sailing short of supplies. Say, can you raise 
a cud among you nozv?" 

Later on, after the British had taken the city 
of New York, two more attempts were made to 
blow up vessels in the river above the city. But 
they both failed, and in the end the British 
fired upon and sunk the Turtle. Bushnell's 
work was lost. The best he had been able to 
do was to give them a good scare. 

But he was not yet at the end of his schemes. 
He next tried to blow up the Cerberus, a Brit- 
ish frigate that lay at anchor in Long Island 
Sound. This time a schooner saved the frigate. 
A powder magazine was set afloat, but it struck 
the schooner, which lay at anchor near the 
frigate. The schooner went to pieces, but the 
Cerberus was saved. 

The most famous of Bushnell's exploits took 
place at Philadelphia, after the British had 
taken possession and brought their ships up 
into the Delaware River. 

One fine morning a number of kegs were 



BUSHNELL SCARES THE BRITISH 67 

seen floating down among the shipping. What 
they meant nobody knew. The sailors grew 
curious, and a boat set out from a vessel and 
picked one of them up. In a minute it went off, 
with the noise of a cannon, sinking the boat 
and badly hurting the man. 

This filled the British with a panic. Those 
terrible kegs might do frightful damage. They 
must be some dreadful invention of the rebels. 
The sailors ran out their guns, great and small, 
and began to batter every keg they saw with 
cannon balls, until there was a rattle and roar 
as if a mighty battle was going on. Such was 
the famous "Battle of the Kegs." 

This was more of Dave Bushnell's work. 
He had made and set adrift those powder kegs, 
fixing them so that they would explode on 
touching anything. But he did not understand 
the river and its tides. He intended to have 
them get among the ships at night, but it was 
broad day when they came down, and by that 
time the eddying waters had scattered them 
far and wide. So the powder kegs were of no 
more account than the torpedoes. All they did 
was to give the British a scare. 

Philadelphia had a poet named Francis 



68 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

Hopkinson, who wrote a poem making fun of 
the British, called 'The Battle of the Kegs." 
We give a few verses of this humorous poem : 

*Twas early day, as poets say, 

Just as the sun was rising; 
A soldier stood on a log of wood 

And saw the sun a-rising. 

As in amaze he stood to gaze 

(The truth can't be denied, sir), 
He spied a score of kegs, or more, 

Come floating down the tide, sir. 

A sailor, too, in jerkin blue, 

The strange appearance viewing. 
First "dashed" his eyes in great surprise. 

Then said : "Some mischief's brewing. 

"These kegs, I'm told, the rebels hold, 

Packed up like pickled herring; 
And they've come down to attack the town 

In this new way of ferrying." 



The cannons roar from shore to shore, 
The small arms make a rattle ; 

Since wars began, I'm sure no man 
E'er saw so strange a battle. 



BUSHNELL SCARES THE BRITISH 69 

The fish below swam to and fro, 

Attacked from every quarter, 
"Why sure," thought they, "the devil's to pay 

'Mong folks above the water." 

From morn to night these men of might 

Displayed amazing courage ; 
And when the sun was fairly down, 

Retired to sup their porridge. 

Such feats did they perform that day. 

Against those wicked kegs, sir. 
That years to come, if they get home, 

They'll make their boasts and brags, sir. 

And so it went on, verse after verse, with 
not much poetry in it, but a good deal of fun. 
The British did not enjoy it, for people did not 
like to be laughed at then any more than now. 



CHAPTER VII 

CAPTAIN BARRY AND HIS ROW- 
BOATS WIN A VICTORY OVER 
THE BRITISH 



A Gallant Naval Hero of Irish Blood 

THE heroes of our navy were not all 
Americans born. More than one of 
them came from British soil, but a foot- 
print on the green fields of America soon 
turned them into true-blue Yankees. There 
was John Paul Jones, the gallant Scotchman. 
And there was John Barry, a bold son of 
green Erin. 

I have told you the story of Jones, the 
Scotchman, and now I must tell you that of 
Barry, the Irishman. 

John Barry was a merchant captain who 
was made commander of the Lexington in 
1776. The next year he was appointed to the 
Effingliain, a new frigate building at Philadel- 
phia. The British captured that city before 

(70) 



CAPTAIN BARRY'S ROWBOATS 71 

the ship was ready for sea, and the Eifingham, 
the Washington, and some other vessels were 
caught in a trap. They were taken up the 
river to Whitehill, above the city, and there 
they had to stay. Captain Barry, you may be 
sure, was not much pleased at this, for he was 
one of the men who love to be where fighting 
is going on. 

Soon orders came from the Navy Board to 
sink the EHHnghani. This made Barry's Irish 
blood very hot. I fancy he said some hard 
things about the members of the board, and 
swore he would do nothing of the kind. If the 
British wanted the American ships let them 
come and take them. He had guns enough to 
give them some sport and was disposed to 
try it. 

When the members of the Navy Board 
heard of what he said, they were very angry, 
and in the end he had to sink the ship and had 
to apologize for his strong language. But 
time proved that he was right and the Navy 
Board was wrong. 

By this time Captain Barry was tired 
enough of being penned up, and he made up his 
mind by hook or crook to get out of his cage. 



72 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

He was burning for a fight, and thought that 
if he could get down the river he might give 
the British a taste of his mettle. 

So, one dark night he set out with four boats 
and twenty-seven men. He rowed down the 
river past the ships in the stream and the sol- 
diers on shore. Some of the soldiers saw his 
boats, and a few shots were fired, but they got 
safely past, and by daybreak were far down 
the broad Delaware. 

Barry kept on until he reached Port Penn, 
down near the bay, where the Americans had 
a small fort. Here there was a chance for the 
work he wanted, for across the river he saw 
a large schooner flying the British flag. It 
was the Alert, carrying ten guns, and with it 
were four transports laden with food for the 
army at Philadelphia. 

This was a fine opportunity for the bold 
Irish captain. It took courage to attack a 
strong English vessel with a few rowboats, 
but of courage Barry had a full supply. 

The sun was up, and it was broad day when 
the American tars set out on their daring 
enterprise. The Alert had a wide-awake name, 
but it must have had a sleepy crew ; for before 



CAPTAIN BARRY'S ROWBOATS 73 

the British knew there was anything wrong, 
Barry and his men had rowed across the 
stream and were clambering over the rail, cut- 
lass and pistol in hand. 

The British sailors, when they saw this 
''wild Irishman" and his daring tars, cutting 
and slashing and yelling like madmen, dropped 
everything and ran below in fright. All that 
keep them there. 

In this easy fashion, twenty-eight Americans 
captured a British ten-gun vessel with a hun- 
dred and sixteen men on board. There had 
been nothing like that in all the war. 

The transports had to surrender, for they 
were under the guns of the Alert, and Barry 
carried his five prizes triumphantly to Port 
Penn, where he handed his captives over to 
the garrison. 

And now the daring captain made things 
lively for the foe. He sailed up and down the 
river and bay, and cut off supplies until the 
British army at Philadelphia began to suffer 
for food. 

What was to be done? Should this Yankee 
wasp go on stinging the British Hon? General 
Howe decided that this would never do, and 



74 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

sent a frigate and a sloop-of-war down the 
river to put an end to the trouble. 

Captain Barry, finding these water-hounds 
sharp on his track, ran for Christiana Creek, 
hoping to get into shallow water where the 
heavy British ships could not follow. But the 
frigate was too fast, and chased him so closely 
that the best he could do was to run the 
schooner ashore and escape in his boats. 

But he was determined that they should not 
have the Alcrf if he could help it. Turning 
two of the guns downward, he fired through 
the ship's bottom, and in a minute the water 
was pouring into her hold. 

The frigate swung round and fired a broad- 
side at the fleeing boats ; but all it brought back 
was a cheer of defiance from the sailors, as 
they struck the land and sprang ashore. Here 
they had the satisfaction of seeing the schooner 
sink before a British foot could be set on her 
deck. 

The war vessels now went for the transports 
at Port Penn. Here a battery had been built 
on shore, made of bales of hay. This was at- 
tacked by the sloop-of-war. but the American 
sharpshooters made things lively for her. They 



CAPTAIN BARRY'S ROWBOATS 75 

might have beaten her off had not their captaii; 
fallen with a mortal wound. The men now lost 
heart and fled to the woods, lirst setting fire 
to the vessels. 

Thus ended Barry's brave exploit. He had 
lost his vessels, but the British had not got 
them. The Americans were proud of his dar- 
ing deed, and the British tried to win so brave 
a man to their side. Sir William Howe oft'ered 
him twenty thousand pounds in money and the 
command of a British frigate if he would 
desert his flag. But he was not dealing now 
with a Benedict Arnold. 

"Not if you pay me the price and give me 
the command of the whole British fleet can you 
draw me away from the cause of my country," 
wrote the patriotic sailor. 

Barry was soon rewarded for his patriotism 
by being made captain of an American frigate, 
the RalcigJi. But ill-luck now followed him. 
He sailed from Boston on September 25, 1778, 
and three days afterward he had lost his ship 
and was a wanderer with his crew in the vast 
forests of Alaine. 

Let us see how^ this ill-fortune came about. 
The RalcigJi had not got far from port before 



76 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

two sails came in sight. Barry ran down to 
look at them, and found they were two English 
frigates. Two to one was too great odds, and 
the RalcigJi turned her head homewards again. 
But when night shut out the frigates she wore 
rotmd and started once more on her former 
course. 

The next day opened up foggy, and till noon 
nothing was to be seen. Then the fog lifted, 
and to Barry's surprise there were the British 
ships, just south of his own. Now for three 
hours it was a hot chase, and then down came 
another fog and the game was once more at 
an end. 

But the Raleigh could not shake off the 
British bull-dogs. At about nine o'clock the 
next morning they came in sight again and the 
chase was renewed. It was kept up till late 
in the day. At first the RalcigJi went so fast 
that her pursuers dropped out of sight. Then 
the wind failed her. and the British ships came 
up with a strong breeze. 

At five o'clock the fastest British frigate was 
close at hand, and Barr}^ thought he would try 
what she was good for before the other 
came up. 



CAPTAIN BARRY'S ROWBOATS 77 

In a few minutes more the two ships were 
hurUng" iron bahs into each other's sides, while 
the smoke of the conflict filled the skies. Then 
the fore-topmast and mizzen-topgallantmast 
of the Raleigh were shot away, leaving her in 
a crippled state. 

The British ship had now much the best of 
it. Barry tried his best to reach and board her, 
but she sailed too fast. And up from the south 
came the other ship, at swift speed. To fight 
them both with a crippled craft would have 
been madness, and, as he could not get away, 
Barry decided to run his ship ashore on the 
coast of Maine, which was close at hand. 

Night soon fell, and with it fell the wind. 
Till midnight the two ships drifted along, with 
red fire spurting from their sides and the 
thunder of cannon echoing from the hills. 

In the end the RalcigJi ran ashore on an 
island near the coast. Here Barry fought for 
some time longer, and then set his ship on fire 
and went ashore with his men. But the Brit- 
ish were quickly on board, put out the fire, and 
carried oflf their prize. Barry and his men 
made their way through the Maine woods till 
the settlements were reached. 



78 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

In 1 78 1 Captain Barry was sent across the 
ocean in the Alliance, a vessel which had taken 
part in the famous battle of the Bon Houunc 
RicJiard and the Sera pis. Here the g"allant 
fellow fought one of his best battles, this time 
also against two British ships. 

AMien he came upon them there was not a 
breath of wind. All sail was set, but the 
canvas flapped against the yards, and the ves- 
sel lay 

**As idle as a painted ship upon a painted ocean.'' 

The British vessel^ were a brig and a sloop- 
of-w^ar. They wanted to tight as badly as did 
Captain Barry, and, as they could not sail, they 
got out sweeps and rowed up to the American 
frigate. It was weary work, and it took them 
six hours to do it. 

Then came the hails of the captains and the 
roar of cannon, and soon there was a very 
pretty fight, with the Allia}icc in a dangerous 
situation. She was too heavy to be moved 
with sweeps, like the light British vessels, so 
thev got on her quarters and poured in broad- 
sides, while she could reply only with a few 
eims. 



CAPTAIN BARRY'S ROWBOATS 79 

Barry raged like a wild hull, bidding his 
men fight, and hegging for a wind. As he did 
so, a grape-shot struck him in the shoulder and 
felled him to the deck. As he was carried 
below, a shot carried away the American flag. 
A lusty cheer came from the British ships; 
they thought the flag down and the victory 
theirs. They soon saw it flying again. 

But the Alliance was in sore straits. She 
was getting far more than she could give, and 
had done little harm to her foes. At length a 
lieutenant came down to the wounded captain. 

"We cannot handle the ship and are being 
cut to pieces," he said. "The rigging is in 
tatters and the fope-topmast in danger, and the 
carpenter reports two serious leaks. Eight or 
ten of our people are killed and more wounded. 
The case seems hopeless, sir; shall we strike 
the colors?" 

"No!" roared Barry, sitting bolt upright. 
"Not on your life! If the ship can't be fought 
without me, then carry me on deck." 

The lieutenant went up and reported, and 
the story soon got to the men. 

"Good for Captain Barry," they shouted. 
"We'll stand bv the old man." 



8o OUR NAVAL HEROES 

A minute later a change came. A ripple of 
water was seen. Soon a breeze rose, the sails 
filled out, and the Alliance slipped forward and 
yielded to her helm. 

This was what the brave Barry had been 
waiting for. It was not a case of whistling for 
a wind, as sailors often do, but of hoping and 
praying for a wind. It came just in time to 
save the Alliance from lowering her proud 
flag, or from going to the bottom with it still 
flying, as would have suited her bold captain 
the better. 

Now she was able to give her foes broadside 
for broadside, and you may be sure that her 
gunners, who had been like dogs wild to get 
at the game, now poured in shot so fast and 
furious that they soon drove the foe in terror 
from his guns. In a short time, just as Cap- 
tain Barry was brought on deck with his 
wound dressed, their flags came down. 

The prizes proved to be the Atlanta and the 
Trepassy. That fight was near the last in the 
war. At a later date Captain Barry had the 
honor of carrying General Lafayette home to 
France in his ship. 



CHAPTER VIII 

CAPTAIN TUCKER HONORED BY 
GEORGE WASHINGTON 



The Daring Adventures of the Hero of 
Marblehead 

CAPTAIN SAMUEL TUCKER was a 
Yankee boy who began his career by 
running away from home and shipping 
as a cabin-boy on the British sloop-of-war 
Royal George. It was a good school for a 
seaman, and when his time was up he knew 
his business well. 

There was no war then, and he shipped as 
second-mate on a merchant vessel sailing from 
Salem. Here he soon had a taste of warlike 
life and showed what kind of stufif was in him. 
The Mediterranean Sea in those days was in- 
fested by pirates sailing from the Moorish 
ports. It was the work of these to capture 
merchant ships, take them into port, and sell 
their crews as slaves. 

6 (8i) 



82 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

On Tucker's first voyage from Salem two 
of these piratical craft, swift corsairs from 
Algiers, came in sight and began a chase of 
the merchantman. 

What could be done? There was no hope 
to run away from those fleet-footed sea- 
hounds. There was no hope to beat them ofif 
in a fight. The men were in a panic and the 
captain sought courage in rum, and was soon 
too drunk to handle his ship. 

Tucker came to the rescue. Taking the 
helm, he put it hard down and headed straight 
for the pirates. It looked as if he was sailing 
straight for destruction, but he knew what he 
was about. The Yankee schooner, if it could 
not sail as fast, could be handled more easily 
than the Algerines, with their lateen sails ; and 
by skilful steering he got her into such a posi- 
tion that the pirates could not fire into him 
without hurting one another. 

Try as they would, Mate Tucker kept his 
vessel in this position, and held her there until 
the shades of night fell. Then he slipped away, 
and by daylight was safe in port. You may 
see from this that Samuel Tucker was a bold 
and a smart man and an able seaman. 



CAPTAIN TUCKER HONORED 83 

After that he was at one time an officer in 
the British navy and at another a merchant 
captain. He was in London when the Revolu- 
tion began. His courage and skill were so well 
known that he was offered a commission in 
either the army or the navy, if he was willing 
to serve "his gracious Majesty." 

Tucker forgot where he was, and rudely re- 
plied, "Hang his gracious Majesty! Do you 
think I am the sort of man to fight against my 
country?" 

Those were rash words to be spoken in Lon- 
don, A charge of treason was brought against 
him and he had to seek safety in flight. For a 
time he hid in the house of a country inn-keeper 
who was his friend. Then a chance came to 
get on shipboard and escape from the country. 
In this way he got back to his native land. 

It was not only the English who knew Cap- 
tain Tucker's ability. He was known in Amer- 
ica as well. No doubt there were many who 
had heard how he had served the pirate Moors. 
He had not long been home when General 
Washington sent him a commission as captain 
of the ship Franklin, and ordered him to get to 
sea at once. 



S4 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

The messenger with the commission made 
his way to the straggling old town oi Marble- 
head, where Tucker lived. Inquiring for him 
in the town, he was directed to a certain house. 

Reaching this, the messenger saw a roughly - 
dressed and weather-beaten person working in 
the yard, with an old tarpaulin hat on his head 
and a red bandanna handkerchief tied loosely 
round his neck. 

The man, thinking him an ordinary laborer, 
called out from his horse: 

"Say, good fellow, can you tell if tlie Honor- 
able Samuel Tucker lives here or hereabouts?" 

The workman looked up with a quizzical 
glance from imder the brim of his tarpaulin 
and replied: 

"Honorable, honorable! There's none of 
that name in Marblehead. He must be one of 
the Salem Tuckers. I'm the only Samuel 
Tucker in this town." 

"Anyhow, this is where I was told to stop. 
A house standing alone, with its gable-end to 
the sea. This is the only place I've seen that 
looks like tliat." 

"Then I must be the Tucker you want, hon- 
orable or not. \Miat is it you have got to say 
to him?" 



CAPTAIN TUCKER HONORED 85 

He soon learned, and was glad to receive the 
news. Early the next morning he had left 
home for the port where the Franklin lay, and 
not many days passed before he was out at sea. 

The Franklin, under his command proved 
one of the most active ships afloat. She sent in 
prizes in numbers. More than thirty were 
taken in 1776 — ships, brigs, and smaller ves- 
sels, including *'a brigantine from Scotland 
worth fifteen thousand pounds." 

These were not all captured without fighting. 
Two British brigs were taken so near Marble- 
head that the captain's wife and sister, hearing 
the sound of cannon, went up on a high hill 
close by and saw the fight through a spy-glass. 

The next year Captain Tucker was put in 
command of the frigate Boston, and in 1778 he 
took John Adams to France as envoy from the 
United States. 

It was a voyage full of incidents. They 
passed through days of storm, which nearly 
wrecked the ship. Many vessels were seen, and 
the Boston was chased by three men-of-war. 

She ran away from these, and soon after 
came across a large armed vessel, which Cap- 
tain Tucker decided to fight. \Mien the drum 



S6 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

calleci the men to quarters, Mr. Adams seized a 
musket and joined the marines. 

The captain requested him to go below. 
Finding that he was not going to obey, Tucker 
laid a hand on his shoulder and said firmly : 

"Mr. Adams, I am commanded by the Conti- 
nental Congress to deliver you safe in France. 
You must go below." 

Mr. Adams smiled and complied. The next 
minute there came a broadside from the stran- 
ger. There was no response from the Boston. 
Other shots came, and still no reply. At length 
the blue-jackets began to grumble. Looking 
them in the eyes, Tucker said, in quizzical 
tones : 

"Hold on, lads. I want to get that egg 
without breaking the shell." 

In a few minutes more, having got into the 
position he wished, he raked the enemy from 
stem to stern with a broadside. That one sam- 
ple was enough. She struck her flag without 
waiting for a second. Soon after the envoy 
was safely landed in France. 

Numbers of anecdotes are told of Captain 
Tucker, who was a man much given to saying 
odd and amusing things. 



CAPTAIN TUCKER HONORED 87 

Once he fell in with a British frigate which 
had been sent in search of him. He had made 
himself a thorn in the British lion's side and 
was badly wanted. Up came Tucker boldly, 
with the English flag at his peak. 

He was hailed, and replied that he was Cap- 
tain Gordon, of the English navy, and that he 
was out in search of the Boston, commanded 
by the rebel Tucker. 

"If I can sight the ship I'll carry him to New 
York, dead or alive," he said. 

"Have you ever seen him?" 

"Well, I've heard of him; they say he is a 
tough customer." 

While talking, he had been manoeuvering to 
gain a raking position. Just as he did so, a 
sailor in the British tops cried, — 

"Look out below ! That is Tucker himself." 

The Englishman was in a trap. The Boston 
had him at a great disadvantage. There was 
nothing to do but to strike his flag, and this he 
did without firing a gun. 

When Charleston was taken by the British, 
the Boston was one of the vessels cooped up 
there and lost. Captain Tucker was taken 
prisoner. After his exchange, as he had no 



88 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

ship, he took the sloop-of-war Thorn, one of 
his former prizes, and went out cruising as a 
privateer. 

After a three weeks' cruise, the Thorn met 
an EngHsh ship of twenty-three guns. 

*'She means to fight us," said the captain to 
his men, after watching her movements. "If 
we go alongside her hke men she will be ours 
in thirty minutes; if we can't go as men we 
have no business there at all. Every man who 
is willing to fight go down the starboard gang- 
way; all others can go down the larboard." 
Every soul of them took the starboard. 

He manoeuvered so that in a few minutes 
the vessels lay side by side. The Englishman 
opened with a broadside that did little damage. 
The Thorn replied with a destructive fire, and 
kept it up so hotly that within thirty minutes a 
loud cry came from the English ship: 

"Quarters, for God's sake ! Our ship is sink- 
ing. Our men are dying of their wounds." 

"How can you expect quarters while your 
flag is flying?" demanded Captain Tucker. 

"Our halliards are shot away." 

"Then cut away your ensign staff, or you'll 
all be dead men." 



CAPTAIN TUCKER HONORED 89 

It was done and the firing ceased. A dread- 
ful execution had taken place on the English- 
man's deck, more than a third of her crew 
being dead and wounded, while blood was 
everywhere. 

And so we take our leave of Captain Tucker. 
He was one of the kind of sailors that every- 
one likes to read about. 



CHAPTER IX 

THE LAST NAVAL BATTLE OF THE 
REVOLUTION 



The Heroic Captain Barney in the 
"Hyder Ali" Captures the "Gen- 
eral Monk" 

YOU must think by this time that we had 
many bold and brave sailors in the Revo- 
lution. So we had. You have not been 
told all their exploits, but only a few among 
the most gallant ones. There is one more story 
that is worth telling, before we leave the Revo- 
lutionary times. 

If you are familiar with American history 
you will remember that Lord Cornwallis sur- 
rendered to General Washington in October, 
1 781. That is generally looked on as the end 
of the war. There was no more fighting on 
land. But there was one bold affair on the 
water in April, 1782, six months after the work 
of the armies was done. 

(90) 



LAST BATTLE OF REVOLUTION 91 

This was in Delaware Bay, where Captain 
Barry had taken a war vessel with a few row- 
boats. The hero of this later exploit was Cap- 
tain Joshua Barney, and he was as brave a 
man as John Barry. 

Captain Barney had seen service through the 
whole war. Like John Paul Jones, an accident 
had made him a captain of a ship when he was 
a mere boy. He was only seventeen, yet he 
handled his ship with the skill of an old mari- 
ner. War broke out soon afterward and he 
became an officer on the Hornet, though still 
only a boy. Soon after he had some lively serv- 
ice in the Wasp, and captured a British priva- 
teer with the little sloop Sachem. 

Then he had some bad fortune, for he was 
taken prisoner while bringing in a prize ves- 
sel, and was put on the terrible prison-ship 
Jersey. Few of the poor fellows on that vessel 
lived to tell the story of the frightful way in 
which they were treated. But young Barney 
managed to escape, and went to sea again as 
captain of a merchant vessel. In this he was 
chased by a British war-vessel, the Rosebud. 
Shall I tell you the way that Captain Barney 
plucked the petals of the Rosebud? He fired 



92 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

a crowbar at her out of one of his cannon. 
This new kind of cannon-ball went whirling 
through the air and came ripping and tearing 
through the sails of the British ship. After 
making rags of her sails, it hit her foremast 
and cut out a big slice. The Americans now 
sailed quietly away. They could laugh at John 
Bull's Rosebud. 

On the 8th of April, 1782, Captain Barney 
took command of the Hyder AH. This was a 
merchant ship which had been bought by the 
State of Pennsylvania. It was not fit for a 
warship, but the State was in a hurry, so eight 
gun-ports were cut on each side, and the ship 
was mounted with sixteen six-pounder cannon. 
Then she set sail from Philadelphia in charge 
of a fleet of merchant vessels. 

On they went, down the Delaware river and 
bay, until Cape May was reached. Here Cap- 
tain Barney saw that there was trouble ahead. 
Three British vessels came in sight. One of 
these was the frigate Quebec. The others were 
a brig, the Fair American, and a sloop-of-war, 
the General Monk. 

Before such a fleet the Hyder Ali was like a 
sparrow before a hawk. Captain Barney at 



LAST BATTLE OF REVOLUTION 93 

once signaled his merchant ships to make all 
haste up the bay. Away they flew like a flock 
of frightened birds, except one, whose captain , 
thought he would slip round the cape and get 
to sea. But the British soon swallowed up him 
and his ship, so he paid well for his smartness. 

On up the bay went the other merchantmen, 
with the Hyder AH in the rear, and the British 
squadron hot on their track. The frigate sailed 
into a side channel, thinking it would find a 
short-cut and so head them off. Captain Bar- 
ney watched this movement with keen eyes. 
The big ship had put herself out of reach for 
a time. He knew well that she could not get 
through that way, and laid his plans to have 
some sport with the small fish while the big fish 
was away. 

The brig Fair American was a privateer and 
a fast one. It came up with a fair breeze, soon 
reaching the Hyder AH, which expected a fight. 
But the privateer wanted prizes more than 
cannon balls, and went straight on, firing a 
broadside that did no harm. Captain Barney 
let her go. The sloop-of-war was coming fast 
behind, and this was enough for him to attend 
to. It had more guns than his ship and they 



94 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

were double the weight — twelve-pounders to 
his six-pounders. As the war sloop came near, 
Barney turned to his helmsman, and said: 

''I want you to go opposite to my orders. If 
I tell you to port your helm, you are to put it 
hard-a-starboard. Do you understand?" 

"Aye, aye!" answered the tar. 

Up came the General Monk, its captain 
thinking to make an easy prize, as the Fair 
American had been let go past without a shot. 
When about a dozen yards away the British 
captain hailed: 

''Strike your colors, or I will fire!" 

"Hard-a-port your helm," roared Barney to 
the man at the wheel. "Do you w.ant her to 
run aboard us?" 

The order was heard on board the enemy, 
and the captain gave orders to meet the ex- 
pected movement. But hard-a-starboard went 
the helm, and the Hydcr AH swung round in 
front of the enemy, whose bowsprit caught and 
became entangled In her fore-rigging. 

This gave the American ship a raking posi- 
tion, and In a moment the grim tars were hard 
at work with their guns. Broadsides were 
poured In as fast as they could load and fire, 



LAST BATTLE OF REVOLUTION 95 

and every shot swept from bow to stern. The 
EngHshman, though he had double the weight 
of metal, could not get out of the awkward 
position in which Barney had caught him, and 
his guns did little harm. In less than half an 
hour down went his flag. 

It was none too soon. The frigate had seen 
the fight from a distance, and was making all 
haste to get out of its awkward position and 
take a hand in the game. Barney did not even 
wait to ask the name of his prize, but put a 
crew on board and bade them make all haste 
to Philadelphia. 

He followed, steering now for the Fair 
American. But the privateer captain had seen 
the fate of the General Monk and concluded 
that he had business elsewhere. So he ran 
away instead of fighting, and soon ran ashore. 
The Hyder Ali left him there and made all 
haste up stream. The frigate had by this time 
got out of her side channel, and was coming 
up under full sail. So Captain Barney crowded 
on all sail also and fled away after his prize. 

If the frigate had got within gunshot it 
would soon have settled the question, for it 
could have sunk the Hyder Ali with a broad- 



96 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

side. But it was not fast enough, and after a 
speedy run the victor and her prize drew up 
beside a Philadelphia wharf. 

Never had the good people of the Quaker 
City gazed on such a sight as now met their 
eyes. Nothing had been done to remove the 
marks of battle. The ships came in as they 
had left the fight. Shattered bulwarks, ragged 
rents in the hulls, sails in tatters and drooping 
cordage told the story of the desperate battle. 

And the decks presented a terrible picture. 
Blood was everywhere. On the General Monk 
were stretched the dead bodies of twenty men, 
while twenty-six wounded lay groaning below. 
The Hyder AH had suffered much less, having 
but four killed and eleven wounded. 

In all the Revolutionary War there have been 
few more brilliant actions ; and his victory gave 
Joshua Barney a high standing among the 
naval commanders of the young Republic. 

Shall we take up the story of the gallant Bar- 
ney at a later date ? Thirty years after his vic- 
tory over the General Monk, there was war 
again between Americans and Britons, and 
Commodore Barney, now an old man, took an 
active part. 



LAST BATTLE OF REVOLUTION 97 

He started out in the early days of the war 
with no better vessel than the schooner Rossie, 
of fourteen guns and 120 men. He soon had 
Hvely times. The Rossie was a cHpper, and he 
could run away from an enemy too strong to 
fight, though running away was not much to 
his taste. 

In his first cruise he was out forty-five days, 
and in that time he captured fourteen vessels 
and 166 prisoners. 

In a month's time he was at sea again. Now 
he got among British frigates and had to trust 
to the heels of his little craft. But in spite of 
the great ships that haunted the seas, new 
prizes fell into his hands, one being taken after 
an hour's fight. In all, the vessels and cargoes 
taken by him were worth nearly $3,000,000, 
though most of this wealth went to the bottom 
of the sea. 

The next year (181 3) he was made com- 
modore of a fleet of gunboats in Chesapeake 
Bay. Here for a year he had very little to do. 
Then the British sailed up the Chesapeake, in- 
tending to capture Washington and Baltimore, 
Barney did not hesitate to attack them, and did 
considerable damage, though they were much 
too strong for his small fleet. 



98 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

At length there came from the frightened 
people at Washington the order to burn his 
fleet, and, much against his will, he was forced 
to consign his gunboats to the flames. With 
his men, about four hundred in all, he joined 
the army assembled to defend the capital. 

These sailor-soldiers made the best fight of 
any of the troops that sought to save Washing- 
ton from capture; but during the fight Com- 
modore Barney received a wound that brought 
his fighting days to an end. Fortunately there 
was little more fighting to do, and peace reigned 
over his few remaining years of life. 



CHAPTER X 

THE MOORISH PIRATES OF THE 
MEDITERRANEAN 



Our Navy Teaches Them a Lesson in 
Honor 

1 SUPPOSE all the readers of this book know 
what a pirate is. For those who may not 
know, I would say that a pirate is a sea- 
robber. They are terrible fellows, these 
pirates, who live by murder and plunder. In 
old times there were many ship-loads of them 
upon the seas, who captured every merchant 
vessel they met with and often killed all on 
board. 

There have been whole nations of pirates, 
and that as late as a hundred years ago. By 
looking at an atlas you will see at the north of 
Africa the nations of Algiers, Tunis, and Trip- 
oli. The people of these nations are called 
Moors, and they used to be great sea-robbers. 
They sent out fast vessels in the Mediterranean 

(99) 



loo OUR NAVAL HEROES 

Sea, and no merchant ship there was safe. 
Hundreds of such ships were taken and robbed. 
Their crews were not killed, but they were sold 
as slaves, which was nearly as terrible. 

Would you not think that the powerful na- 
tions of Europe would have soon put a stop to 
this? They could have sent fleets and armies 
there and conquered the Moors. But instead 
of that, they paid them to let their ships alone. 

Not long after the Revolution these sea-rob- 
bers began to make trouble for the United 
States. The new nation, you should know, had 
no navy. After it was done fighting with the 
British, it was so poor that it sold all its ships. 
But it soon had many merchant ships, sailing 
to all seas, which were left to take care of them- 
selves the best way they could. 

What did the pirates of Algiers care for this 
young nation across the Atlantic, that had rich 
merchant ships and not a war vessel to protect 
them? Very little, I fancy. It is certain that 
they soon began to capture American ships and 
sell their sailors for slaves. In a short time 
nearly two hundred American sailors were 
working as slaves in the Moorish states. 

The United States did not act very bravely. 



THE MOORISH PIRATES loi 

Instead of sending out a fleet of warships, it 
made a treaty with Algiers and agreed to pay 
a certain sum of money every year to have its 
vessels let alone. While the treaty lasted, more 
than a million dollars were paid to the Dey of 
Algiers. If that much had been spent for 
strong frigates, the United States would not 
have had the disgrace of paying tribute to the 
Moors. But the natives of Europe were doing 
the same, so the disgrace belonged to them also. 

The trouble with the Moors got worse and 
worse, and the Dey of Algiers became very 
insolent to Americans. 

''You are my slaves, for you pay me tribute," 
he said to the captain of an American frigate. 
*T have a right to order you as I please." 

When the other pirate nations, Tunis and 
Tripoli, found that Algiers was being paid, 
they asked for tribute, too. And they began to 
capture American ships and sell their crews into 
slavery. And their monarchs were as insolent 
as the Dey. 

The United States at that time was young 
and poor. It had not been twenty years free 
from British armies. But it was proud, if it 
was poor, and did not like to have its captains 



102 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

and consuls ordered about like servants. So 
the President and Congress thought it was time 
to teach the Moors a lesson. 

This was in 1801. By that time a fleet of 
war vessels had been built, and a squadron of 
these was sent to the Mediterranean under 
Commodore Richard Dale. This was the man 
who had been in Paul Jones's great fight and 
had received the surrender of the captain of 
the Serapis. He was a bold, brave officer, but 
Congress had ordered him not to fight if he 
could help it, and therefore very little was 
done. 

But there was one battle, the story of which 
we must tell. Commodore Dale had three 
frigates and one little schooner, the Enterprise. 
All the honor of the cruise came to this little 
craft. 

She was on her way to Malta when she came 
in sight of a low, long vessel, at whose mast- 
head floated the flag of Tripoli. When this 
came near, it was seen to be a corsair which had 
long waged war on American merchantmen. 

Before Captain Sterrett, of the Enterprise, 
had time to hail, the Moors began to fire at his 
ship. He was told not to fight if he could help 



THE MOORISH PIRATES 103 

it, but Sterrett decided that he could not help 
it. He brought his schooner within pistol shot 
of the Moor, and poured broadsides into the 
pirate ship as fast as the men could load and 
fire. The Moors replied. For two hours the 
battle continued, with roar of cannon and rat- 
tle of muskets and dense clouds of smoke. 

The vessels were small and their guns were 
light, so that the battle was long drawn out. 

At last the fire of the corsair ceased, and a 
whiflf of air carried away the smoke. Looking 
across the waves, the sailors saw that the flag 
of Tripoli no longer waved, and three hearty 
American cheers rang out. The tars left their 
guns and were getting ready to board their 
prize, when up again went the flag of Tripoli 
and another broadside was fired into their 
vessel. 

Their cheers of triumph turned to cries of 
rage. Back to their guns they rushed, and 
fought more fiercely than before. They did not 
care now to take the prize ; they wished to send 
her, with her crew of villains, to the bottom of 
the sea. 

The Moors fought as fiercely as the Amer- 
icans. Running their vessel against the Enter- 



I04 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

prise, they tried again and again to leap on 
board and finish the battle with pistol and cut- 
lass ; but each time they were driven back. 

The men at the guns meanwhile poured in 
two more broadsides, and once more down 
came the flag of Tripoli. 

Captain Sterrett did not trust the traitors 
this time. He bade his men keep to their 
guns, and ordered the Tripolitans to bring 
their vessel under the quarter of the Enter- 
prise. They had no sooner done so than a 
throng of the Moorish pirates tried to board 
the schooner. 

"No quarter for the treacherous dogs !" was 
the cry of the furious sailors. "Pour it into 
them; send the thieves to the bottom!" 

The Enterprise now drew ofif to a good posi- 
tion and raked the foe with repeated broad- 
sides. The Moors were bitterly punished for 
their treachery. Their deck ran red with blood ; 
men and officers lay bleeding in throngs; the 
cries of the wounded rose above the noise of 
the cannon. The flag was down again, but no 
heed was paid to that. The infuriated sailors 
were bent on sending the pirate craft to the 
bottom. 



THE MOORISH PIRATES 105 

At length the corsair captain, an old man 
with a flowing white beard, appeared at the 
side of his ship, sorely wounded, and, with a 
low bow, cast his flag into the sea. Then Cap- 
tain Sterrett, though he still felt like sinking 
the corsair, ordered the firing to stop. 

The prize proved to be named the Tripoli. 
What was to be done with it? Captain Ster- 
rett had no authority to take prizes. At length 
he concluded that he would teach the Bashaw 
of Tripoli a lesson. 

He sent Lieutenant David Porter, a daring 
young oflicer who was yet to make his mark, 
on the prize, telling him to make a wreck of 
her. 

Porter was glad to obey those orders. He 
made the captive Tripolitans cut down their 
masts, throw all their cannon and small arms 
into the sea, cut their sails to pieces, and fling 
all their powder overboard. He left them only 
a jury-mast and a small sail. 

"See here," said Porter to the Moorish cap- 
tain, '*we have not lost a man, while fifty of 
your men are killed or wounded. You may go 
home now and tell this to your Bashaw, and say 
to him that in the time to come the only tribute 



io6 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

he will get from the United States will be a 
tribute of powder and balls." 

Away drifted the wrecked hulk, followed by 
the jeers of the American sailors, who were 
only sorry that the treacherous pirate had 
not been scuttled and sent to the bottom of the 
sea. 

When it reached Tripoli the Bashaw was 
mad with rage. Instead of the plunder and the 
white slaves he had looked for, he had only a 
dismantled hulk. 

The old captain showed him his wounds and 
told him how hard he had fought. But his 
fury was not to be appeased. He had the white- 
bearded commander led through the streets 
tied to a jackass — the greatest disgrace he 
could have inflicted on any Moor. This was 
followed by five hundred blows with a stick. 

The Moorish sailors declared that the Amer- 
icans had fired enchanted shot. This, and the 
severe punishment of the captain of the Tripoli, 
so scared the sailors of the city that for a year 
after the fierce Bashaw found it next to im- 
possible to muster a ship's crew. They did 
not care to be treated as the men on the Tripoli 
had been. 



THE MOORISH PIRATES 107 

Such was the first lesson which the sailors 
of the new nation gave to the pirates of the 
Mediterranean. It was the beginning of a 
policy which was to put an end to the piracy 
which had prevailed for centuries on those 
waters. 



CHAPTER XI 

THE YOUNG DECATUR AND HIS BRIL- 
LIANT DEEDS AT TRIPOLI 



How Our Navy Began and Ended a For- 
eign War 

IN the ship Essex, one of the fleet that was 
sent to the Mediterranean to deal with 
the Moorish pirates, there was a brave 
young officer named Stephen Decatur. He was 
Httle more than a boy, for he was just past 
twenty-one years of age ; but he had been in the 
fight between the Enterprise and the Tripoli, 
and was so bold and daring that he was sure 
to make his mark. 

I must tell you how he first showed himself 
a true American. It was when the Essex was 
lying in the harbor at Barcelona, a seaport of 
Spain. The Essex was a handsome little ves- 
sel, and there was much praise of her in the 
town, people of fashion came to see her and 
invited her officers to their houses and treated 
them with great respect. 

(io8) 



YOUNG DECATUR AT TRIPOLI 109 

Now there was a Spanish warship lying in 
the port, of the kind called a xebec, a sort of 
three-masted vessel common in the Mediter- 
ranean Sea. 

The officers of this ship did not like to see so 
much respect given to the Americans and so 
little to themselves. They grew jealous and 
angry, and did all they could to annoy and 
insult the officers of the Essex. Every time one 
of her boats rowed past the xebec it would be 
challenged and ugl}^ things said. 

The Americans bore all this quietly for a 
while. One day Captain Bainbridge, of the 
Essex, was talked to in an abusive way, and 
said little back. Another time a boat, under 
command of Lieutenant Decatur, came under 
the guns of the xebec, and the Spaniards on 
the deck hailed him with insulting words. This 
was more than young blood could stand, and 
he called to the officer of the deck and asked 
him what that meant, but the haughty Spaniard 
would give him no satisfaction. 

"Very well," said Decatur. 'T will call to 
see you in the morning. Pull off, lads." 

The next morning Decatur had himself 
rowed over to the xebec, and went on board. 



no OUR NAVAL HEROES 

He asked for the officer who was in charge the 
night before. 

''He has gone ashore," was the reply. 

"Well, then," said Decatur, in tones that 
every one on board could hear, "tell him that 
Lieutenant Decatur, of the frigate Essex, calls 
him a cowardly scoundrel, and when he meets 
him on shore he will cut his ears off." 

There were no more insults after that. De- 
catur spoke as if he meant what he said, and the 
officers of the xebec did not want to lose their 
ears. But the United States Minister to Spain 
took up the matter and did not rest until he 
got a full apology for the insults to the Amer- 
icans. 

I have told this little story to let you see 
what kind of a man Stephen Decatur was. But 
this was only a minor affair. Lie was soon to 
make himself famous by one of the most bril- 
liant deeds in the history of the American navy. 

In October, 1802, a serious disaster came to 
the American fleet. The frigate Philadelphia 
was chasing a runaway vessel into the harbor 
of Tripoli, when she got in shoal water and 
suddenly ran fast aground on a shelf of rock. 

Here was an awkward position. Captain 



YOUNG DECATUR AT TRIPOLI m 

Bainbridge threw overboard most of his can- 
non and his anchors, and everything that would 
Hghten the ship, even cutting down his fore- 
masts; but all to no purpose. She still clung 
fast to the rock. 

Soon a flock of gunboats came down the 
harbor and saw the bad fix the Americans were 
in. Bainbridge was quite unable to fight them, 
for they could have kept out of the way of his 
guns and made kindling wood of his vessel. 
There was nothing to do but to 'surrender. So 
he flooded the powder magazine, threw all the 
small arms overboard, and knocked holes in 
the bottom of the ship. Then he hauled down 
his flag. 

The gunboats now came up like a flock of 
hawks, and soon the Moors were clambering 
over the rails. In a minute more they were in 
every part of the ship, breaking open chests 
and storerooms and plundering officers and 
men. Two of them would hold an officer and 
a third rob him of his watch and purse, his 
sword, and everything of value he possessed. 
The plundering did not stop till the captain 
knocked down one of the Moors for trying to 
rob him of an ivory miniature of his wife. 



112 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

Then the Americans were made to get into 
the gunboats and were taken ashore. They 
were marched in triumph through the streets, 
and the men were thrown into prison. The 
officers were invited to supper by the Bashaw, 
and treated as if they were guests. But as 
soon as the supper was over, they, too, were 
taken to the prison rooms in which they were 
to stay till the end of the war. 

The Tripolitans afterwards got the Phila- 
delphia off the rocks during a high tide, 
plugged up the holes in her bottom, fished up 
her guns and anchors, and fitted her up for 
war. The Bashaw was proud enough of his 
fine prize, which had not cost him a man or a 
shot, and was a better ship than he had ever 
seen before. 

When the American commodore learned of 
the loss of the Philadelphia he was in a bad 
state of mind. To lose one of his best ships in 
this way was not at all to his liking, for he was 
a man who did not enjoy losing a ship ; and to 
know that the Moors had it and were making 
a warship of It was a hard thing to bear. 

From his prison Captain Bainbrldge wrote 
letters to Commodore Preble, which the Moors 



YOUNG DECATUR AT TRIPOLI 113 

read and then sent out to the fleet. They did 
not know that the letters had postscripts writ- 
ten in lemon- juice which only came out when 
the sheet of paper was held to the heat of a fire. 
In these the captain asked the commodore to 
try and destroy the captured ship. 

Commodore Preble was a daring officer, and 
was ready enough for this, if he only knew how 
it could be done. Lieutenant Decatur was then 
in command of the Enterprise, the schooner 
which had fought with the Tripoli. He asked 
the commodore to let him take the Enterprise 
into the harbor and try to destroy the cap- 
tured ship. He knew he could do it, he said, if 
he only had a chance. At any rate, he wanted 
to try. 

Commodore Preble shook his head. It could 
not be done that way. He would only lose his 
own vessel and his men. But there was a way 
it might be done. The Moors might be taken 
by surprise and their prize burned in their 
sight. It was a desperate enterprise. Every 
man who took part in it would be in great dan- 
ger of death. But that danger did not give 
much trouble to bold young Decatur, who was 
as ready to fight as he was to eat. 



114 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

What was the commodore's plan, do you 
ask? Well, it was this. Some time earlier the 
Enterprise had captured the Mastico, a vessel 
from Tripoli. Preble gave this "craft the new 
name of the Intrepid and proposed to send it 
into the harbor. The Moors did not know of 
its capture and would not suspect it, and thus 
it might get up close to the Philadelphia. 

Decatur was made conmiander and called 
for volunteers. Every man and boy on the 
Enterprise wanted to go; and he picked out 
over seventy of them. As he was about to 
leave the deck, a boy came up and asked if he 
couldn't go, too. 

''Why do you want to go, Jack?" 

"Well, Captain, you see, I'd kind o' like to 
see the country." 

This was such a queer reason that Decatur 
laughed and told him he might go. 

One dark night, on February 3, 1804, the 
Intrepid left the rest of the fleet and set sail 
for the harbor of Tripoli. The little Siren went 
with her for company. But the weather proved 
stormy, and it was not until the 15th that they 
were able to carry out their plan. 

About noon they came in sight of the spires 



YOUNG DFXATUR AT TRIPOLI 115 

of the city of Tripoli. Decatur did not wish 
to reach the Philadelphia until nightfall, but 
he was afraid to take in sail, for fear of being 
suspected; so he dragged a cable and a num- 
ber of buckets behind to lessen his speed. 

After a time the Philadelphia came in sight. 
She was anchored well in the harbor, under the 
guns of two heavy batteries. Tw'o cruisers 
and a number of gunboats lay near by. It was 
a desperate and dangerous business which De- 
catur and his tars had taken in hand, but they 
did not let that trouble them. 

At about ten o'clock at night the Intrepid 
came into the harbor's mouth. The wind had 
fallen and she crept slowly along over the 
smooth sea. The Siren stayed behind. Her 
w^ork w^as that of rescue in case of trouble. 
Straight for the frigate went the devoted crew. 
A new moon sent its soft lustre over the waves. 
All w^as still in city and fleet. 

Soon the Intrepid came near the frigate. 
Only twelve men were visible on her deck. The 
others w^ere Iving flat in the shadow on the 
buhvarks, each with cutlass tightly clutched 
in hand. 

"What vessel is that?" was asked in Moor- 
ish words fromi the frigate. 



ii6 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

"The Mastico, from Malta," answered the 
pilot in the same tongue. "We lost our an- 
chors in the gale and were nearly wrecked. 
Can we ride by your ship for the night?" 

The permission asked was granted, and a 
boat from the Intrepid made a line fast to the 
frigate, while the men on the latter threw a 
line aboard. The ropes were passed to the 
hidden men on the deck, who pulled on them 
lustily. 

As the little craft came up, the men on the 
frigate saw her anchors hanging in place. 

"You have lied to us!" came a sharp hail. 
"Keep off ! Cut those lines !" 

Others had seen the concealed men, and the 
cry of "Americanos !" was raised. 

The alarm came too late. The little craft 
was now close up and a hearty pull brought 
her against the hull of the large ship. 

"Boarders away!" came the stirring order. 

"Follow me, lads," cried Decatur, springing 
for the chain-plates of the frigate. Men and 
officers were after him hot-foot. Midshipman 
Charles Morris was the first to reach the deck, 
with Decatur close behind. 

The surprise was complete. There was no 




Decatur at Tripoli. 



YOUNG DECATUR AT TRIPOLI 117 

resistance. Few of the Moors had weapons, 
and they fled from the Americans hke fright- 
ened sheep. On all sides the splashing of water 
could be heard as they leaped overboard. In a 
few minutes they were all gone and Decatur 
and his men were masters of the ship. 

They would have given much to be able to 
take the noble frigate out of the harbor. But 
that could not be done, and every minute made 
their danger greater. All they could do was 
to set her on fire and retreat with all speed. 

Not a moment was lost. Quick-burning ma- 
terial was brought from the Intrepid, put in 
good places, and set on fire. So rapidly did the 
flames spread that the men who were lighting 
fires on the lower decks had scarcely time to 
escape from the fast-spreading conflagration. 

Flames poured from the port-holes, and 
sparks fell on the deck of the smaller vessel. 
If it should touch the powder that was stored 
amidships, death would come to them all. With 
nervous haste they cut the ropes, and the In- 
trepid was pushed off. Then the sweeps were 
thrust out and the little craft rowed away. 

"Now, lads, give them three good cheers," 
cried Decatur. 



ii8 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

Up sprang the jack-tars, and three ringing 
cheers were given, sounding above the roar of 
the flames and of the cannon that were now 
playing on the Httle vessel from the batteries 
and gunboats. Then to their sweeps went the 
tars again, and drove their vessel every minute 
farther away. 

As they went they saw the flames catch 
the rigging and run up the masts of the doomed 
frigate. Then great bursts of flame shot out 
from the open hatchways. The loaded guns 
went off one after another, some of them firing 
into the town. It was a lurid and striking 
spectacle, such as is seldom seen. 

Bainbridge and his fellow-ofiicers saw the 
flames from their prison window and hailed 
them with lusty cheers. The officers of the 
Siren saw them also, and sent their boats into 
the harbor to aid the fugitives, if necessary. 
But it was not necessary. Not a man had been 
hurt. In an hour after the flames were seen, 
Decatur and his daring crew came In triumph 
out of the bay of Tripoli. 

Never had been known a more perfect and 
successful naval exploit. All Europe talked 
of it with admiration when the news was re- 



YOUNG DECATUR AT TRIPOLI 119 

ceived. Lord Nelson, the greatest of Eng- 
land's sailors, said, 'Tt was the boldest and 
most daring act of the ages." When the tid- 
ings reached the United States, Decatur, young 
as he was, was rewarded by Congress with the 
title of captain. 

We are not yet done with the Intrepid, in 
which Decatur played so brilliant a part. She 
was tried again in work of the same kind, but 
with a more tragic end. 

A room was built in her and filled with 
powder, shot, and shells. Combustibles of vari- 
ous kinds were piled around it, so that it could 
not fail to go off, if set on fire. Then, one 
dark night, the fire-ship was sent into the har- 
bor of Tripoli, with a picked crew under an- 
other gallant young officer. Lieutenant Rich- 
ard Somers. 

They were told to take it into the midst of 
the Moorish squadron, set it one fire and escape 
in their boats. It was expected to blow up and 
rend to atoms the war vessels of Tripoli. 

But the forts and ships began to fire on it, 
and before it reached its goal a frightful dis- 
aster occurred. Suddenly a great jet of fire 
was seen to shoot up into the sky. Then came 



I20 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

a roar like that of a volcano. The distant spec- 
tators saw the mast of the Intrepid, with blaz- 
ing sail, flung like a rocket into the air. Bombs 
flew in all directions. Then all grew dark and 
still. 

In some way the magazine had been ex- 
ploded, perhaps by a shot from the enemy. 
Nothing was ever seen again of Somers and 
his men. It was the great tragedy of the war. 
They had all perished in that fearful explosion. 

Now let us turn back to the story of Decatur, 
of whom we have some more famous work 
to tell. 

In August, 1804, the American fleet entered 
the harbor of Tripoli and made a daring attack 
on the fleet, the batteries, and the city of the 
Bashaw. In addition to the war vessels of the 
fleet, there were six gunboats and two bomb 
vessels, all pouring shot and shell into the city 
which had so long defied them. 

The batteries on shore returned the fire, and 
the gunboats of the Bashaw advanced to the 
attack. On these the fleet now turned its fire, 
sweeping their decks with grape and canister 
shot. Decatur, with three gunboats, advanced 



YOUNG DECATUR AT TRIPOLI 121 

on the eastern division of the Moorish gun- 
boats, nine in all. 

Decatur, you will see, was outnumbered 
three to one, but he did not stop for odds like 
that. He dashed boldly in, laid his vessel 
alongside the nearest gunboat of the enemy, 
poured in a volley, and gave the order to board. 
In an instant the Americans were over the bul- 
warks and on the foe. 

The contest was short and sharp. The cap- 
tain of the Tripolitans fell dead. Most of his 
officers were wounded. The men, overcome by 
the fierce attack, soon threw down their arms 
and begged for quarter. Decatur secured them 
below decks and started for the next gunboat. 

On his w^ay he was hailed from one of his 
own boats, which had been commanded by his 
brother James. The men told him that his 
brother had captured one of the gunboats of 
the enemy, but, on going on board after her flag 
had fallen, he had been shot dead by the treach- 
erous commander. The murderer had then 
driven the Americans back and carried his boat 
out of the fight. 

On hearing this sad news, Decatur was filled 
with grief and rage. Bent on revenge, he 



122 OUR XAVAL HEROES 

turned his boat's prow and swiftly sped to- 
wards the craft of the assassin. The instant 
the two boats came together the furious Deca- 
tur sprang upon the deck of the enemy. At his 
back came Lieutenant IMcDonough and nine 
sturdy sailors. Nearly forty of the ^I6ors 
faced them, at their head a man of gigantic 
size, his face half covered with a thick black 
beard, a scarlet cap on his head, the true type 
of a pirate captain. 

Sure that this was his brother's nuirderer, 
Decatur rushed fiercely at the giant ]\Ioor. The 
latter thrust at him with a heavy boarding pike. 
Decatur parried the blow, and made a fierce 
stroke at the weapon, hoping to cut off its 
point. 

He failed in this and his cutlass broke off at 
the hilt, leaving him with empty hands. With 
a lusty yell the IMoor thrust again. Decatur 
bent aside, so that he received only a slight 
wound. Then he seized the weapon, wrested 
it from the hands of the ]\Ioor, and thrust 
fiercely at him. 

In an instant more the two enemies had 
clinched in a wrestle for life and death, and 
fell struggling to the deck. \Miile they lay 



YOUNG DECATUR AT TRIPOLI 123 

there, one of the TripoHtan officers raised his 
scimetar and aimed a deadly blow at the head 
of Decatur. 

It seemed now as if nothing could save the 
struggling American. Only one of his men 
was near by. This was a sailor named Reuben 
James, who had been wounded in both arms. 
But he was a man of noble heart. He could 
not lift a hand to save his captain, but his head 
was free, and with a sublime devotion he thrust 
it in the way of the descending weapon. 

Down it came with a terrible blow on his 
head, and he fell bleeding to the deck, but before 
the Tripolitan could lift his weapon again to 
strike Decatur, a pistol shot laid him low. 

Decatur was left to fight it out with the giant 
Moor, With one hand the huge wrestler held 
him tightly and with the other he drew a dag- 
ger from his belt. The fatal moment had ar- 
rived. Decatur caught the Moor's wrist just as 
the blow was about to fall, and at the same 
instant pressed against his side a small pistol 
he had drawn from his pocket. 

A touch of the trigger, a sharp report, and 
the body of the giant relaxed. The bullet had 
pierced him through and he fell back dead. 



124 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

Flinging off the hea\'y weight, Decatur rose to 
his feet. 

Meanwhile his few men had been fiercely 
fighting the Tripolitan crew. Greatly as they 
outnumbered the Americans, the Moors had 
been driven back. They lost heart on seeing 
their leader fall and threw down their arms. 

Another gunboat was captured and then the 
battle ended. The attack on Tripoh had proved 
a failure and the fleet drew off. 

I know you will ask what became of brave 
Reuben James, w^ho oft'ered his life for his cap- 
tain. Was he killed ? No, I am glad to say he 
was not. He had an ugly cut, but he was soon 
well again. 

One day Decatur asked him what reward he 
should give him for saving his life. The 
worthy sailor did not know what to say. He 
scratched his head and looked puzzled. 

**Ask him for double pay. Rube," suggested 
one of his shipmates. 

"A pocket full of dollars and shore leave," 
whispered another. 

**No," said the modest tar. ''Just let some- 
body else hand out the hammocks to the men 
when they are piped down. That's something 
I don't like." 



YOUNG DECATUR AT TRIPOLI 125 

Decatur consented; and afterwards, when 
the crew was piped down to stow hammocks, 
Reuben walked among them as free and inde- 
pendent as a miUionaire. 

That is aU we have here to say about the 
Tripohtan war. The next year a treaty of 
peace was signed, and Captain Bainbridge and 
the men of the Philadelphia were set free from 
their prison cehs. 

In 181 2, when war broke out with England, 
the gallant Decatur was given the command 
of the frigate United States, and with it he 
captured the British frigate Macedonian, after 
a hard fight. 

Poor Decatur was shot dead in a duel in 
1820 by a hot-headed officer whom he had of- 
fended. It was a sad end to a brilliant career, 
for the American Navy never had a more gal- 
lant commander. 



CHAPTER XII 

THE GALLANT "OLD IRONSIDES" 

AND HOW SHE CAPTURED 

THE "GUERRIERE" 



A Famous Incident of the War of 1812 

WHEN did our country win its greatest 
fame upon the sea ? I think, when you 
have read the story of the War of 
1812, you will say it was in that war. It is 
true, we did not do very well on land in that 
war, but the glory we lost on the shore we 
made up on the sea. 

You should know that in 181 2 England was 
the greatest sea-power in the world. For years 
she had been fighting with Napoleon, and every 
fleet he set afloat was badly whipped by British 
ships. Is it any wonder that the people of that 
little island were proud of their fleets? Is it 
any wonder they proudly sang — 

"Britannia needs no bulwarks, 
No towers along the steep ; 
Her march is o'er the mountain waves, 
Her home is on the deep." 
(126) 



GALLANT "OLD IRONSIDES" 127 

They grew so vain of their lordship of the 
sea that they needed a lesson, and they were 
to get one from the Yankee tars. As soon as 
war began between England and the United 
States in 1812, a flock of British war-hawks 
came flying bravely across the seas, thinking 
they would soon gobble up the Yankee spar- 
rows. But long before the war was over, they 
quit singing their proud song of "Britannia 
rules the waves," and found that what they 
thought was a Yankee sparrow was the Amer- 
ican eagle. 

There were too many great things done on 
the ocean in this war for me to name them all, 
so I will have to tell only the most famous. 
And first of all I must give you the story of the 
noble old Constihition, or, as she came to be 
called, Old Ironsides. 

The Constitution was a noble ship of the old 
kind. That royal old craft is still afloat, after 
more than a hundred years of service, and after 
all her companions have long since sunk in the 
waves or rotted away. She was built to fight 
the French in 1798. She was Commodore 
Preble's flagship in the war with the Moorish 
pirates. And she won undying fame in the 



128 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

War of 1812. So the story of the Constitution 
comes first in our Hst of the naval conquerors 
of that war. 

I fancy, if any of you had been hving at that 
time, you would have wanted to fight the Brit- 
ish as badly as the Americans then did. For 
the British had for years been taking sailors 
from American ships and making them serve 
in their own men-of-war. Then, too, they had 
often insulted our officers upon the seas, and 
acted in a very insolent and overbearing way 
whenever they had the opportunity. This made 
the Americans very angry and was the main 
cause of the war. 

I must tell you some things that took place 
before the war. In 181 1 a British frigate 
named the Giierricre was busy at this kind of 
work, sailing up and down our coast and car- 
rying off American sailors on pretence that 
they were British. Just remember the name 
of the "Guerriere." You will soon learn how 
the Constitution paid her for this shabby work. 

I have also a story to tell about the Constitu- 
tion in 181 1. She had to cross the Atlantic in 
that year, and stopped on some business in the 
harbor of Portsmouth, an English seaport. 



GALLANT "OLD IRONSIDES" 129 

One night a British officer came on board and 
said there was an American deserter on his 
ship, the Havana, and that the Americans could 
have him if they sent for him. 

Captain Hull, of the Constitution, was then 
in London, so Lieutenant Morris, who had 
charge of the ship, sent for the man ; but when 
his messenger came, he was told that the 
man said he was a British subject, and there- 
fore he should not be given up. They were 
very sorry, and all that, but they had to take 
the man's word for it. Morris thought this 
very shabby treatment but he soon had his 
revenge. For that very night a British sailor 
came on board the Constitution, who said he 
was a deserter from the Havana. 

"Of what nation are you?" he was asked. 

"I'm an American, sor," said the man, with 
a strong Irish accent. 

Lieutenant Morris sent word to the Havana 
that a deserter from his ship was on the Con- 
stitution. But when an officer from the Ha- 
vana came to get the deserter, Morris politely 
told him that the man said he was an Amer- 
ican, and therefore he could not give him up. 
He was very sorry, he said, but really the man 



I30 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

ought to know to what country he belonged. 
You may be interested to learn that Lieutenant 
Morris was the man who had been first to 
board the Philadelphia in the harbor of Tripoli. 

This was paying John Bull in his own coin. 
The officers in the harbor were very angry 
when they received this answer. Next, they 
tried to play a trick on the Americans. Two 
of their warships came up and anchored in 
the way of the Constitution. But Lieutenant 
Morris got up anchor and slipped away to a 
new berth. Then the two frigates sailed up 
and anchored in his way again. That was the 
way matters stood when Captain Hull came on 
board in the evening. 

When the captain was told what had taken 
place, he saw that the British were trying to 
make trouble about the Irish deserter. But he 
was not the man to be caught by any trick. He 
loaded his guns and cleared the ship for action. 
Then he pulled up his anchor, slipped round 
the British frigates, and put to sea. 

Lie had not gone far before the two frigates 
started after him. They came on under full 
sail, but one of them was slow and fell far 
behind, so that the other came up alone. 



GALLANT "OLD IRONSIDES" 131 

"If that fellow wants to fight he can have 
his chance," said Captain Hull, and he bade his 
men to make ready. 

Up came the Englishman, but when he saw 
the ports open, the guns ready to bark at 
him across the waves, and everything in shape 
for a good fight, he had a sudden change of 
mind. Round he turned like a scared dog, and 
ran back as fast as he had come. That was a 
clear case of tit for tat, and tat had it. No 
doubt, the Englishman knew that he was in the 
wrong, for English seamen are not afraid to 
fight. 

Home from Plymouth came the Constitution 
and got herself put in shape for the war that 
was soon to come. It had not long begun 
before she was ofif to sea; and now she had a 
remarkable adventure with the Guerriere and 
some other British ships. In fact, she made a 
wonderful escape from a whole squadron of 
war vessels. She left the Chesapeake on July 
1I2, 181 2, and for five days sailed up the coast. 
The winds were light and progress was very 
slow. Then, on the 17th, the lookout aloft 
saw four warships sailing along close in to the 
Jersey coast. 



132 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

Two hours afterward another was seen. 
This proved to be the frigate Guerriere, and it 
was soon found that the others were British 
ships also. One of them was a great ship-of- 
the-hne. It would have been madness to think 
of fighting such a force as this, more than six 
times as strong as the Constitution, and there 
was nothing to do but to run away. 

Then began the most famous race in Amer- 
ican naval history. There was hardly a breadth 
of wind, the sails hung flapping to the masts; 
so Captain Hull got out his boats and sent them 
ahead with a line to tow the ship. When the 
British saw this they did the same, and by put- 
ting all their boats to two ships they got ahead 
faster. 

I cannot tell the whole story of this race, but 
it lasted for nearly three days, from Friday 
afternoon till Monday morning. Now there 
was a light breeze and now a dead calm. Now 
they pulled the ships by boats and now by 
kedging. That is, an anchor was carried out 
a long way ahead and let sink, and then the 
men pulled on the line until the ship was 
brought tip over it. Then the anchor would be 
drawn up and carried and dropped ahead again. 



GALLANT "OLD IRONSIDES" 133 

For two long days and nights the chase kept 
up, during which the Constitution was kept, by 
weary labor, just out of gunshot ahead. At 
four o'clock Sunday morning the British ships 
had got on both sides of the Constitution, and it 
looked as if she was in a tight corner. But 
Captain Hull now turned and steered out to 
sea, across the bows of the Eolus, and soon had 
them astern again. 

The same old game went on until four o'clock 
in the afternoon, when they saw signs of a 
coming squall. Captain Hull knew how to deal 
with an American squall, but the Englishmen 
did not. He kept his men towing until he saw 
the sea ruf!led by the wind about a mile away. 
Then he called the boats in and in a moment 
let fall all his sails. 

Looking at the British, he saw them hard 
at work furling their sails. They had let all 
their boats go adrift. But Captain Hull had 
not furled a sail, and the minute a vapor hid 
his ship from the enemy all his sails were 
spread to the winds and away went the Yankee 
ship in rapid flight. He had taught his foes a 
lesson in American seamanship. 

When the squall cleared away the British 



134 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

ships were far astern. But the wind fell again 
and all that night the chase kept up. Captain 
Hull threw water on his sails and made every 
rag of canvas draw. When daylight came only 
the top sails of the enemy could be seen. At 
eight o'clock they gave up the chase and turned 
on their heels. Thus ended that wonderful 
three days chase, one of the most remarkable 
in naval history. 

And now we come to the greatest story in 
the history of the "Old Ironsides." In less than 
a month after the Gucrricre had helped to chase 
her off the Jersey coast, she gave that proud 
ship a lesson which the British nation did not 
soon forget. Here is the story of that famous 
fight, by which Captain Hull won high fame : 

In the early morning of August 19, while 
the old ship was bowling along easily off the 
New England coast, a cheery cry of "Sail-ho!" 
came from the lookout at the masthead. 

Soon a large vessel was seen from the deck. 
On went the Yankee ship with flying flag and 
bellying sails. The strange ship waited as if 
ready for a fight. When the Constitution drew 
near, the stranger hoisted the British flag and 
began to fire her great guns. 



GALLANT "OLD IRONSIDES" 135 

It was the Guerriere. When he saw the 
Stars and Stripes, Captain Dacres said to his 
men: 

"That is a Yankee frigate. She will be ours 
in forty-five minutes. If you take her in fif- 
teen, I promise you four months pay." 

It is never best to be too sure, as Captain 
Dacres was to find. 

The Guerriere kept on firing at a distance, 
but Captain Hull continued to take in sail and 
get his ship in fighting trim, without firing a 
gun. After a time Lieutenant Morris came up 
and said to him : 

"The British have killed two of our men. 
Shall we return their fire?" 

"Not yet," said Captain Hull. "Wait a 
while." 

He waited until the ships were almost touch- 
ing, and then he roared out : 

"Now, boys ; pour it into them !" 

Then came a roaring broadside that went 
splintering through the British hull, doing 
more damage than all the Giierriere's fire. 

Now the battle was on in earnest. The two 
ships lay side by side, and for fifteen minutes 
the roar of cannon and the rattle of musketry 



136 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

filled the air, while cannon balls tore their way 
through solid timber and human flesh. 

Down came the mizzen-mast of the Guer- 
ricre, cut through by a big iron shot. 

"Hurrah, boys!" cried Hull, swinging his 
hat like a schoolboy; "we've made a brig of 
her." 

The mast dragged by its ropes and brought 
the ship round, so that the next broadsidd' 
from the Constitution raked her from stem to 
stern. 

The bowsprit of the Gncrriere caught fast 
in the rigging of the Constitution, and the 
sailors on both ships tried to board. But soon 
the winds pulled the Constitution clear, and as 
she forged ahead, down with a crash came the 
other masts of the British ship. They had 
been cut into splinters by the Yankee guns. A 
few minutes before she had been a stately 
three-masted frigate; now she was a helpless 
hulk. Not half an hour had passed since the 
Constitution fired her first shot, and already 
the Guerricre was a wreck, while the Yankee 
ship rode the waters as proudly as ever. 

Off in triumph went the "Old Ironsides," and 
hasty repairs to her rigging were made. Then 



GALLANT OLD "IRONSIDES" 137 

she came up with loaded guns. The Guerriere 
lay rolling like a log in the water, without 
a flag in sight. Not only her masts were 
gone, but her hull was like a sieve. It had 
more than thirty cannon-ball holes below the 
water-line. 

There was no need to fire again. Lieutenant 
Read went off in a boat. 

"Have you surrendered?" he asked Captain 
•Dacres, who was looking, with a very long 
face, over the rail. 

*Tt would not be prudent to continue the en- 
gagement any longer," said Dacres, in gloomy 
tones. 

"Do you mean that you have struck your 
flag?" 

"Not precisely. But I do not know that it 
will be worth while to fight any more." 

"If you cannot make up your mind I will go 
back and we will do something to help you." 

"I don't see that I can keep up the fight," 
said the dejected British captain. "I have 
hardly any men left and my ship is ready to 
sink." 

"What I want to know is," cried Lieutenant 
Read, "whether you are a prisoner of war or 



138 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

an enemy. And I must know without further 
parley." 

"If I could fight longer I would," said Cap- 
tain Dacres. Then with faltering words he 
continued, "but-I-must-surrender." 

"Then accept from me Captain Hull's com- 
pliments. He wishes to know if you need the 
aid of a surgeon or surgeon's mate." 

"Have you not business enough on your own 
ship for all your doctors ?" asked Dacres. 

"Oh, no !" said Read. "We have only seven 
men wounded, and their wounds are all 
dressed." 

Captain Dacres was obliged to enter Read's 
boat and be rowed to the Constitution. He had 
been wounded, and could not climb very well, 
so Captain Hull helped him to the deck. 

"Give me your hand, Dacres," he said, "I 
know you are hurt." 

Captain Dacres offered his sword, but the 
American captain would not take it. 

"No, no," he said, "I will not take a sword 
from one who knows so well how to use it. But 
I'll trouble you for that hat." 

What did he mean by that, you ask? Well, 
the two captains had met some time before the 



GALLANT ''OLD IRONSIDES" 139 

war, and Dacres had offered to bet a hat that 
the Guerriere would whip the Constitution. 
Hull accepted the bet, and he had won. 

All day and night the boats were kept busy 
in carrying the prisoners, well and hurt, to the 
Constitution. When daylight came again it 
was reported that the Guerriere was filling with 
water and ready to sink. 

She could not be saved, so she was set on 
fire. Rapidly the flames spread until they 
reached her magazine. Then came a fearful 
explosion, and a black cloud of smoke hung 
over the place where the ship had floated. 
When it moved away only some floating planks 
were to be seen. The proud Guerriere would 
never trouble Yankee sailors again. 



CHAPTER XIII 

A FAMOUS VESSEL SAVED BY A 
POEM 



"Old Ironsides" Wins New Glory 

«« /^LZ) IRONSIDES was a noble old ship, 
i^ and a noble old ship was she." Come, 
I know you have not heard enough 
about this grand old ship, so let us go on with 
her story. And the first thing to tell is how she 
served another British ship as she had served 
the Guerriere. 

Four months after Captain Hull's great vic- 
tory, the Constitution was in another sea and 
had another captain. She had sailed south 
and was now off the coast of Brazil. And 
William Bainbridge had succeeded Isaac Hull 
in command. 

It was almost the last day of the year. 
Chilly weather, no doubt, in Boston from which 
she had sailed; but mid-summer warmth in 
those southern waters. It certainly felt warm 

(140) 



A FAMOUS VESSEL SAVED 141 

enough to the men on deck, who were "spoihng 
for a fight," when the lookout aloft announced 
two sails. 

The sailors who had been lounging about the 
deck sprang up and looked eagerly across the 
waves, as the cheerful "Sail-ho !" reached their 
ears. Soon they saw that one of the vessels 
was coming their way as fast as her sails could 
carry her. The other had sailed away on the 
other tack. 

The vessel that was coming was the Java, 
a fine British frigate. As she drew near she 
showed signals. That is, she spread out a 
number of small flags, each of which had some 
meaning, and by which British ships could talk 
with each other. Captain Bainbridge could 
not answer these, for he did not know what 
they meant. So he showed American signals, 
which the captain of the Java could not under- 
stand any better. 

Then, as they came nearer, they hoisted their 
national flags, and both sides saw that they 
were enemies and that a fight was on hand. 

Captain Bainbridge was not like Captain 
Hull. He did not wait till the ships were side 
by side, but began firing when the Java was 



142 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

half a mile away. That was only wasting 
powder and balls, but they kept on firing until 
they were close at hand, and then the shots 
began to tell. 

A brave old fellow was the captain of the 
Constitution. A musket ball struck him in the 
thigh as he was pacing the deck. He stopped 
his pacing, but would not go below. Then a 
copper bolt went deep into his leg. But he had 
it cut out and the leg tied up, and he still kept 
on deck. He wanted to see the fight. 

Hot and fierce came the cannon balls, 
hurtling through sails and rigging, rending 
through thick timbers, and sending splinters 
flying right and left. Men fell dead and blood 
ran in streams, but still came the heralds of 
death. 

We must tell the same story of this fight as 
of the fight with the Guerriere. The British 
did not know how to aim their guns and the 
Americans did. The British had no sights on 
their cannon and the Americans had. That 
was why, all through the war, the British lost 
so heavily and the Americans so little. The 
British shot went wild and the American balls 
flew straight to their mark. 



A FAMOUS VESSEL SAVED 143 

You know what must come from that. After 
while, off went the Java's bowsprit, as if it had 
been chopped off with a great knife. Five 
minutes later her foremast was cut in two and 
came tumbling down. Then the main topmast 
crashed down from above. Last of all, her 
mizzen-mast was cut short off by the plunging 
shot, and fell over the side. The well-aimed 
American balls had cut through her great 
spars, as you might cut through a willow stick, 
and she was dismantled as the Guerriere had 
been. 

The loud "hurrahs" of the Yankee sailors 
proved enough to call the dead to life. At any 
rate, a wounded man, whom everyone thought 
dead, opened his eyes and asked what they were 
cheering about. 

''The enemy has struck," he was told. 

The dying tar lifted himself on one arm, 
♦ and waved the other round his head, and gave 
three feeble cheers. With the last one he fell 
back dead. 

But the Java's flag was not down for good. 
As the Constitution came up with all masts 
standing and sails set, the British flag was 
raised to the stump of the mizzen-mast. When 



144 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

he saw this, Bainbridge wore his ship to give 
her another broadside, and then down came her 
flag for good. She had received ah the batter- 
ing she could stand. In fact, the Constitution 
had lost only 34 men, killed and wounded, while 
the Java had lost 150 men. The Constitution 
was sound and whole; the Jaz'a had only her 
mainmast left and was full of yawning rents. 
Old Ironsides had a new feather in her cap. 

Like the Guerriere, the Java was hurt past 
help. It was impossible to take her home; so 
on the last day of 181 2, the torch was put to 
her ragged timbers and the flames took hold. 
Quickly they made their way through the 
ruined ship. About three o'clock in the after- 
noon they reached her magazine, and with a 
mighty roar the wreck of the British ship was 
torn into fragments. To the bottom went the 
hull. Only the broken masts and a few shat- 
tered timbers remained afloat. 

Such is war : a thing of ruin and desolation. 
Of that gallant ship, which two days before 
had been proudly afloat, only some smoke- 
stained fragments were left to tell that she had 
ever been on the seas, and death and wounds 
had come to many of her men. 



A FAMOUS VESSEL SAVED 145 

After her fight with the Java the Constitu- 
tion had a long, weary rest. You wiU remem- 
ber the Bon Hotnme Richard, a rotten old hulk 
not fit for fighting, though she made a very 
good show when the time for fighting came. 
The Constitution was much like her ; so rotten 
in her timbers that she had to be brought home 
and rebuilt. 

Then she went a-sailing again, under Cap- 
tain Charles Stewart, as good an officer as Hull 
and Bainbridge; but it was more than two 
years after her last battle before she had an- 
other chance to show what sort of a fighter 
she was. 

It is a curious fact that some of the hardest 
fights of this war with England took place 
after the war was at an end. The treaty of 
peace was signed on Christmas eve, 18 14, but 
the great battle at New Orleans was fought 
two weeks afterward. There were no ocean 
cable then to send word to the armies that all 
their killing was no longer needed, since there 
was nothing to fight about. 

It was worse still for the ships at sea. No- 
body then had ever dreamed of a telegraph 
without wires to send word out over the waste 

10 



146 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

of waters, or even of a telegraph with wires. 
Thus it was that the last battle of the old 
Constitution was fought nearly two months 
after the war was over. 

The good old ship was then on the other side 
of the ocean, and was sailing along near the 
island of Madeira, which lies off the coast of 
Africa. For a year she had done nothing ex- 
cept to take a few small prizes, and her stal- 
wart crew were tired of that sort of work. 
They wanted a real, big fight, with plenty of 
glory . 

One evening Captain Stewart heard some of 
the officers talking about their bad luck, and 
wishing they could only meet with a fellow of 
their own size. They were tired of fishing for 
minnows when there were whales to be caught. 

*T can tell you this, gentlemen," said the 
captain, "you will soon get what you want. 
Before the sun rises and sets again you will 
have a good old-fashioned fight, and it will not 
be with a single ship, either." 

I do not know what the officers said after 
the captain turned away. Very likely some of 
them wondered how he came to be a prophet 
and could tell what was going to take place. 



A FAMOUS VESSEL SAVED 147 

I doubt very much whether they beUeved what 
he had said. 

At any rate, about one o'clock the next day, 
February 20, 181 5, when the ship was ghding 
along before a light breeze, a sail was seen far 
away in front. An hour later a second sail was 
made out, close by the first. And when the 
Constitution got nearer it was seen that they 
w^ere both ships-of-war. It began to look as if 
Captain Stewart was a good prophet, after all. 

It turned out that the first of these was the 
small British frigate Cyane. The second was 
the sloop-of-war Levant. Neither was a match 
by itself for the Constitution, but both together 
they thought themselves a very good match. 

It was five o'olock before the Yankee ship 
came up within gunshot. The two British 
ships had closed together so as to help one an- 
other, and now they all stripped ofif their extra 
sails, as a man takes off his coat and vest for a 
fight.' 

Six o'clock passed before the battle began. 
Then for fifteen minutes the three ships hurled 
their iron balls as fast as the men could load 
and fire. By that time the smoke was so thick 
that they had to stop firing to find out where 



148 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

the two fighting ships were. The Constitution 
now found herself opposite the Levant and 
poured a broadside into her hull. Then she 
sailed backward — a queer thing to do, but Cap- 
tain Stewart knew how to move his ship stern 
foremost — and poured her iron hail into the 
Cyane. Next she pushed ahead again and 
pounded the Levant till that lively little craft 
turned and ran. It had enough of the Consti- 
tution's iron dumplings to last a while. 

This was great sailing and great firing, but 
Captain Stewart was one of those seamen who 
know how a handle a ship, and his men knew 
how to handle their guns. There were never 
better seamen than those of the Old Ironsides. 

The Levant was now out of the way, and 
there was only the Cyane to attend to. Cap- 
tain Stewart attended to her so well that, just 
forty minutes after the fight began, her flag 
came down. 

Where, now, was the Levant? She had run 
out of the fight; but she had a brave captain 
who did not like to desert his friend, so he 
turned back and came gallantly up again. 

It was a noble act, but a foolish one. This 
the British captain found out when he came 



A FAMOUS VESSEL SAVED 149 

once more under the American guns. They 
were much too hot for him, and once more he 
tried to run away. He did not succeed this 
time. Captain Stewart was too much in love 
with him to let him go, and sent such warm 
love-letters after him that his flag came gliding 
down, as his comrade's had done. 

Captain Stewart had shown himself a true 
prophet. He had met, fought with, and won 
two ships of the enemy. No doubt after that 
his officers were sure they had a prophet for a 
captain. 

That evening, when the two British captains 
were in the cabin of the Constitution, a mid- 
shipman came down and asked Captain Stew- 
art if the men could not have their grog. 

"Why, didn't they have it?" asked the cap- 
tain. 'Tt was time for it before the battle 
began." 

"It was mixed for them, sir," said the mid- 
shipman, "but our old men said they didn't 
want any 'Dutch courage,' so they emptied the 
grog-tub into the lee scuppers." 

The Englishmen stared when they heard 
this. It is very likely their men had not fought 
without a double dose of grog. 



150 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

We have not finished our story yet. Like a 
lady's letter, it has a postscript. On March 
10, the three ships were in a harbor of the 
Cape de Verde Islands, and Captain Stewart 
was sending his prisoners ashore, when three 
large British men-of-war were seen sailing 
into the harbor. 

Stewart was nearly caught in a trap. Any 
one of these large frigates was more than a 
match for the Constitution, and here were 
three in a bunch. But, by good luck, there 
was a heavy fog that hid everything but 
the highest sails; so there was a chance of 
escape. 

Captain Stewart was not the man to be 
trapped while a chance was left. He was what 
we call a "wide-awake." There was a small 
chance left. He cut his cable, made a signal to 
the prize vessels to do the same, and in ten 
minutes after the first British vessel had been 
seen, the American ship and its prizes were 
gliding swiftly away. 

On came the British ships against a stiff 
breeze, up the west side of the bay. Out slipped 
the Yankee ships along the east side. Captain 
Stewart set no sails higher than his top sails, 



A FAMOUS VESSEL SAVED 151 

and these were hidden by the fog, so the Brit- 
ish lookouts saw nothing. They did not dream 
of the fine birds that were flying away. 

Only when Stewart got his ship past the 
outer point of the harbor did he spread his 
upper sails to the breeze, and the British look- 
outs saw with surprise a cloud of canvas sud- 
denly bursting out upon the air. 

Now began a close chase. The Constitidion 
and her prizes had only about a mile the start. 
As quick as the British ships could turn they 
were on their track. But those were not the 
days of the great guns that can send huge balls 
six or seven miles through the air. A mile then 
was a long shot for the largest guns, and the 
Yankee cruisers had made a fair start. 

But before they had gone far Captain Stew- 
art saw that the Cyane was in danger of being 
taken, and signaled for her to tack and take 
another course. She did so and sailed safely 
away. For three hours the three big frigates 
hotly chased the Constitution and Levcu':t, but 
let the Cyane go. 

Captain Stewart now saw that the Levant 
was in the same danger, and he sent her a 
signal to tack as the Cyane had done. The 



152 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

Levant tacked and sailed out of the line ol the 
chase. 

What was the surprise of the Yankee cap- 
tain and his men when they saw all three of 
the big British ships turn on their heels and set 
sail after the little sloop-of-war, letting the 
Constitution sail away. It was like three great 
dogs turning to chase a rabbit and letting a 
deer run free. 

The three huge monsters chased the little 
Levant back into the island port, and there for 
fifteen minutes they fired broadsides at her. 
The prisoners whom Captain Stewart had 
landed did the same from a battery on shore. 
And yet not a shot struck her hull; they were 
all wasted in the air. 

At length Lieutenant Bullard, who was 
master of the prize, hauled down his flag. He 
thought he had seen enough fun, and they 
might hurt somebody afterwhile if they kept 
on firing. But what was the chagrin of the 
British captains to find that all they had done 
was to take back one of their own vessels, while 
the American frigate had gone free. 

The Constitution and the Cyane got safely 
to the American shores, where their officers 



A FAMOUS VESSEL SAVED 153 

learned that the war had ceased more than 
three months before. But the country was 
proud of their good service, and Congress gave 
medals of honor to Stewart and his officers. 

That was the last warlike service of the gal- 
lant Old Ironsides, the most famous ship of the 
American Navy. Years passed by and her 
timbers rotted away, as they had done once 
before. Some of the wise heads in the Navy 
Department, men without a grain of sentiment, 
decided that she was no longer of any use and 
should be broken up for old timber. 

But if they had no love for the good old ship, 
there were those who had; and a poet, Oliver 
Wendell Holmes, came to the rescue. This is 
the poem by which he saved the ship : 

THE OLD IRONSIDES. 

Ay, tear her tattered ensigfn clown! 

Long has it waved on high. 
And many an eye has danced to see 

That banner in the sky; 
Beneath it rung the battle shout. 

And burst the cannon's roar ; 
The meteor of the ocean air 

Shall sweep the clouds no more ! 



154 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

Her deck, once red with heroes' blood. 

Where knelt the vanquished foe, 
When winds were hurrying o'er the flood 

And waves were white below, 
No more shall feel the victor's tread 

Or know the conquered knee ; 
The harpies of the shore shall pluck 

The eagle of the sea ! 

O ! better that her shattered hulk 

Should sink beneath the wave ; 
Her thunders shook the mighty deep, 

And there should be her grave; 
Nail to the mast her holy flag, 

Set every threadbare sail, 
And give her to the god of storms, 

The lightning and the gale. 

There was no talk of destroying the Old 
Ironsides after that. The man that did it 
would have won eternal disgrace. She still 
floats, and no doubt she will float, as long as 
two of her glorious old timbers hang together. 



CHAPTER XIV 

THE FIGHT OF CAPTAIN JACOB 
JONES 



The Lively Little "Wasp" and How She 
Stung the "Frolic" 

NO doubt most of my readers know very- 
well what a wasp is and how nicely it 
can take care of itself. When I was a 
boy I found out more than once how long and 
sharp a sting it has, and I do not think many 
boys grow up without at some time waking up 
a wasp and wishing they had left it asleep. 

The United States has had three Wasps and 
one Hornet in its navy, and the British boys 
who came fooling in their way found that all' 
of them could sting. I will tell you about the 
time one of our Wasps met the British Frolic 
and fought it in a great gale, when the ships 
were tossing about like chips on the ocean 
billows. 

Not long after the Constitution had her 

(155) 



156 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

great fight with the Guerriere, a Httle sloop-of- 
war named the Wasp set sail from Philadel- 
phia to see what she could find on the broad 
seas. This vessel, you should know, had three 
masts and square sails like a ship. But she 
was not much larger thin one of the sloops we 
see on our rivers to-day, so it was right to call 
her a sloop. For captain she had a bold sailor 
named Jacob Jones. 

The first thing the Wasp found at sea was 
a mighty gale of wind, that blew ''great guns" 
for two days. The waves were so big and 
fierce that one of them carried away her bow- 
sprit with two men on it. The next night, after 
the wind had gone down a little, lights shone 
out across the waves, and when daylight came 
Captain Jones saw over the heaving billows six 
large merchant ships. With them was a 
watch-dog in the shape of a fighting brig. 

This brig was named the Frolic. It had been 
sent in charge of a fleet of fourteen merchant- 
men, but these had been scattered by the gale 
until only six were left. The Frolic was a good 
match for the Wasp, and seemed to want a 
fight quite as badly, for it sailed for the Amer- 
ican ship as fast as the howling wind would 



CAPTAIN JACOB JONES 157 

let it. And you may be sure the Wasp did not 
fly away. 

Captain Jones hoisted his country's flag like 
a man. He was not afraid to show his true 
colors. But the Frolic came up under the 
Spanish flag. When they got close together 
Captain Jones hailed, — 

"What ship is that?" 

The only answer of the British captain was 
to pull down the Spanish flag and run up his 
own standard, stamped with the red cross of 
St. George. And as the one flag went down 
and the other went up, the Frolic fired a broad- 
side at the Wasp. But just then the British 
ship rolled over on the side of a wave, and its 
balls went whistling upward through the air. 
The Yankee gunners were more wide-awake 
than that. They waited until their vessel rolled 
down on the side of a great billow, and then 
they fired, their solid shot going low, and tear- 
ing into the Frolic's sides. 

The fighting went that way all through the 
battle. The British gunners did not know their 
business and fired wild. The Yankees knew 
what they were about, and made every shot 
tell. They had sights on their guns and took 



158 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

aim ; the British had no sights and took no aim. 
That is why the Americans were victors in so 
many fights. 

But I think there was not often a sea-fight 
Hke this. The battle took place ofif Cape Hat- 
teras, which is famous for its storms. The 
wind whisfled and howled ; the waves rose into 
foaming crests and sank into dark hollows; 
the fighting craft rolled and pitched. As they 
rolled upward the guns pointed at the clouds. 
As they rolled downward the muzzles of the 
guns often dipped into the foam. Great masses 
of spray came flying over the bulwarks, 
sweeping the decks. The weather and the 
sailors both had their blood up, and both were 
fighting for all they were worth. It was a 
question which would win, the wind or the 
men. 

As fast as the smoke rose the wind swept it 
away, so that the gunners had a clear view of 
the ships. The roar of the gale was half 
drowned by the thunder of the guns, and the 
whistle of the wind mingled with the scream of 
the balls, while the sailors shouted as they ran 
out their guns and cheered as the iron hail 
swept across the waves. 



CAPTAIN JACOB JONES 159 

In such frantic haste did the British handle 
their guns, that they fired three shots to the 
Yankees' two. The latter did not fire till they 
saw something to fire at. As a result, most of 
British balls went whistling overhead, and 
pitching over the IVasp into the sea, while most 
of the Yankee balls swept the decks or bored 
into the timbers of the Frolic. 

But you must not think that the shots of the 
Frolic were all wasted, if they did go high. 
One of them hit the maintopmast of the Wasp 
and cut it square ofif. Another hit the mizzen- 
topgallantmast and toppled it into the waves. 
In twenty minutes from the start '!every brace 
and most of the rigging of the Wasp were shot 
away." The Wasp had done little harm above, 
but a great deal below. 

The Frolic could have run away now if she 
had wanted to. But her captain was not of 
the runaway kind. The fire of the Wasp had 
covered his deck with blood, but he fought 
boldly on. 

As they fought the two ships drifted to- 
gether and soon their sides met with a crash. 
Then, as they were swept apart by the waves, 
two of the Wasp's guns were fired into the 



i6o OUR NAVAL HEROES 

bow-ports of the Frolic and swept her gun- 
deck from end to end. Terrible was the 
slaughter done by that raking fire. 

The next minute the bowsprit of the Frolic 
caught in the rigging of the Wasp, and an- 
other torrent of balls was poured into the 
British ship. Then the Yankee sailors left 
their guns and sprang for the enemy's deck. 
The captain wanted them to keep firing, but he 
could not hold them back. 

First of them all was a brawny Jerseyman 
named Jack Lang, who took his cutlass between 
his teeth and clambered like a cat along the 
bowsprit to the deck. Others followed, and 
when they reached the deck of the Frolic they 
found Jack Lang standing alone and looking 
along the blood-stained deck with staring eyes. 

Only four living men were to be seen, and 
three of these were wounded. One was the 
quartermaster at the wheel and the others were 
officers. Not another man stood on his feet, 
but the deck was strewn with the dead, whose 
bodies rolled about at every heave of the waves. 

When the men came running aft the three 
officers flung down their swords to show that 
they had surrendered, and one of them covered 



CAPTAIN JACOB JONES i6i 

his face with his hands. It hurt him to give up 
the good ship. Lieutenant Biddle, of the 
Wasp, had to haul down the British flag. 

Never had there been more terrible slaugh- 
ter. Of the 1 10 men on the Frolic there were 
not twenty alive and unhurt, while on the Wasp 
only five were dead and five wounded. The 
hull of the Frolic was full of holes and its 
masts were so cut away that in a few minutes 
they both fell. 

Thus ended one of the most famous of Amer- 
ican sea-fights. It was another lesson that 
helped to stop the English from singing 

"Britannia rules the waves." 

But the little Wasp and her gallant crew 
did not get the good of their famous victory. 
While they were busy repairing damages a sail 
appeared above the far horizon. It came on, 
growing larger and larger, and soon it was 
seen to be a big man-of-war. 

The game was up with the Wasp and her 
prize, for the new ship was the Poictiers, a 
great seventy-four ship-of-the-line. She snap- 
ped up the Wasp and the Frolic and carried 

11 



i62 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

them off to the British isle of Bermuda, where 
the victors found themselves prisoners. 

A few words will finish the story of the 
Wasp. She was taken into the British navy; 
but she did not have to fight for her foes, for 
she went down at sea without doing anything. 
So she was saved from the disgrace of fighting 
against her country. 

Captain Jones and his men were soon ex- 
changed, and Congress voted them a reward 
of $25,000 for their gallant fight, while the 
brave captain was given the command of the 
frigate Macedonian, w^hich had been captured 
from the British. It was Captain Stephen De- 
catur, the hero of Tripoli, that captured her, 
in the good ship United States. 

Would you like to hear about the other 
Wasps? There were two more of them, you 
know. They were good ships, but ill luck came 
to them all. The first Wasp did her work in 
the Revolution, and had to be burned at Phila- 
delphia to keep her from the British when they 
took that city. The second one, as I have just 
told you, was lost at sea, and so was the third. 
You may see that bad luck came to them all. 

The third Wasp was, like the second, a 



CAPTAIN JACOB JONES 163 

sloop-of-war, but she was a large and heavy 
one. And though in the end she was lost at 
sea and followed the other Wasp to the bot- 
tom, she did not do so without sending some 
British messengers there in advance. 

I will tell you the story of this Wasp, and 
how she used her sting, but it must be done in 
few words. 

She was built at Portsmouth, New Hamp- 
shire, and sailed on May i, 18 14, her captain 
being Johnston Blakeley; her crew a set of 
young countrymen who were so unused to the 
sea that most of them were seasick for a week. 
Their average age was only twenty-three years, 
so they were little more than boys. Yet the 
most of them could hit a deer with a rifle, and 
they soon show^ed they could hit a Reindeer 
with a cannon. For near the end of June they 
came across a British brig named the Rein- 
deer, and in less than twenty minutes had bat- 
tered her in so lively a fashion that her flag 
came down and she was a prize. 

The crew of the Reindeer were trained sea- 
men, but they did not know how to shoot. The 
Americans were Yankee farmer-lads, yet they 
shot like veteran gunners. I am sure you will 



1 64 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

think so when I tell you that the British could 
hardly hit the Wasp at all, though she was less 
than sixty yards away. But the Yankees hit 
the Reindeer so often that she was cut to pieces 
and her masts ready to fall. In fact, after she 
was captured, she could not be taken into port, 
but had to be set on fire and blown to pieces. 

But I must say a good word for the gallant 
captain of the Reindeer. First, a musket ball 
hit him and went through the calves of both 
legs, but he kept on his feet. Then a grape- 
shot — an iron ball two inches thick — went 
through both his thighs. The brave seaman 
fell, but he rose to his feet again, drew his 
sword, and called his men to board the Wasp. 
He was trying to climb on board when a mus- 
ket ball went through his head. "O God !" he 
cried, and fell dead. 

This fight was in the English Channel, 
where Blakeley was doing what John Paul 
Jones had done years before. Two months 
after the sinking of the Reindeer the Wasp 
had another fight. This time there were three 
British vessels, the Avon, the Castilian, and 
the Tartarus, all of them brig-sloops like the 
Reindeer, These vessels were scattered, chas- 



CAPTAIN JACOB JONES 165 

ing a privateer, and about nine o'clock at night 
the Wasp came up with the Avon alone. They 
hailed each other as ships do when they meet 
at sea. Then, when sure they were enemies, 
they began firing, as ships do also in time of 
war. For forty minutes the fight kept up, and 
then the Avon had enough. She was riddled 
as the Reindeer had been. But the Wasp did 
not take possession ; for before a boat could be 
sent on board, the two comrades of the Avon 
came in sight. 

The Wasp, after her battle with the Avon, 
could not fight two more, so she sailed away 
and left them to attend to their consort. They 
could not save her. The Wasp had stung too 
deeply for that. The water poured in faster 
than the men of all three ships could pump 
it out, and at one o'clock in the morning down 
plunged the Avon's bow in the water, up went 
her stern in the air, and with a mighty surge 
she sank to rise no more. But the gallant 
Wasp had ended her work. She took some 
more prizes, but the sea, to whose depths she 
had sent the Reindeer and Avon, took her also. 
She was seen in October, and that was the 
last that human eyes ever saw of her. 



CHAPTER XV 

CAPTAIN LAWRENCE DIES FOR THE 
FLAG 



His Words, "Do Not Give Up the Ship," 

Become the Famous Motto of 

THE American Navy 

THE United States navy had its Hornet as 
well as its Wasps. And they were well 
named, for they were all able to sting. 
The captain of the Hornet was a noble seaman 
named James Lawrence, who had been a mid- 
shipman in the war with Tripoli. In the War 
of 1812 he was captain in succession of the 
Vixen, the Wasp, the Argus, and the Hornet. 
The Hornet was a sloop-of-war. I have told 
you what that means. She had three masts, 
and carried square sails like a ship, but she 
was called a sloop on account of her size. She 
had eighteen short guns and two long ones. 
The short guns threw thirty-two pound and 
the long ones twelve pound balls. 

(166) 



LAWRENCE DIES 167 

Of course you have not forgotten the fight 
of the Constitution with the Java. When the 
Constitution went south to Brazil at that time 
the Hornet went with her, but they soon parted. 

In one of the harbors of Brazil Captain Law- 
rence saw a British ship as big as the Hornet. 
He waited outside for her, but she would not 
come out. He had found a coward of a cap- 
tain, and he locked him up in that harbor for 
two months. 

Then he got tired and left. Soon after he 
came across the Peacock, a British man-of-war 
brig. The Peacock was as large as the Hornet 
and its captain was as full of fight as Captain 
Lawrence. He was the kind of man that our 
bold Lawrence was hunting for. When two 
men feel that way, a fight is usually not far off. 
That was the way now. Soon the guns were 
booming and the balls were flying. 

But the fight was over before the men had 
time to warm up. The first guns were fired at 
5.25 in the afternoon, and at 5.39 the British 
flag came down ; so the battle lasted just four- 
teen minutes. Not many victories have been 
won so quickly as that. 

But the Hornet acted in a very lively fashion 



1 68 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

while it lasted. Do you know how a hornet 
behaves when a mischievous boy throws a stone 
at its nest? Well, that is the way our Hornet 
did. Only one ball from the Peacock struck 
her, and hardly any of her men were hurt. But 
the Peacock was bored as full of holes as a 
pepper-box, and the water poured in faster 
than all hands could pump it out. In a very 
short time the unlucky Peacock filled and sank. 
So Captain Lawrence had only the honor of 
his victory; old ocean had swallowed up his 
prize. 

But if Captain Lawrence got no prize money, 
he won great fame. He was looked on as an- 
other Hull or Decatur, and Congress made him 
captain of the frigate Chesapeake. That was 
in one way a bad thing for the gallant Law- 
rence, for it cost him his life. In another way 
it was a good thing, for it made him one of the 
most famous of American seamen. 

I have told you the story of several victories 
of American ships. I must now tell you the 
story of one defeat. But I think you will say 
it was a defeat as glorious as a victory. For 
eight months the little navy of the young Re- 
public had sailed on seas where British ships 



LAWRENCE DIES 169 

were nearly as thick as apples in an orchard. 
In that time it had not lost a ship, and had won 
more victories than England had done in 
twenty years. Now it was to meet with its 
first defeat. 

When Captain Lawrence took command of 
the Chesapeake, that ship lay in the harbor of 
Boston. Outside this harbor was the British 
frigate Shannon, blockading the port. 

Now you must know that the American peo- 
ple had grown very proud of their success on 
the sea. They had got to think that any little 
vessel could whip an English man-of-war. So 
the Bostonians grew eager for the Chesapeake 
to meet the Shannon. They were sure it would 
be brought in as a prize, and they wanted to 
hurrah over it. 

Poor Lawrence was as eager as the people. 
He was just the man they wanted. The 
Chesapeake had no crew, but he set himself to 
work, and in two weeks he filled her up with 
such men as he could find. 

It was a mixed team he got together, the 
sweepings of the streets. There were some 
good men among them, but more poor ones. 
And they were all new men to the ship and to 



I/O OUR NAVAL HEROES 

the captain. They had not been trained to 
work together, and it was madness to fight a 
first-class British ship with such a crew. Some, 
in fact, were mutineers and gave him trouble 
before he got out of the harbor. 

But the Shannon was a crack ship with a 
crack crew. Captain Broke had commanded 
her for seven years and had a splendidly 
trained set of men. He had copied from the 
Americans and put sights on his guns, had 
taught his men to fire at floating marks in the 
sea, and had trained his topmen to use their 
muskets in the same careful way. So when 
Captain Lawrence sailed on June I, 1813, he 
sailed to defeat and death. 

Captain Broke sent a challenge to the Chesa- 
peake to come out and fight him ship to ship. 
But Lawrence did not wait for his challenge. 
He was too eager for that, and set sail with a 
crew who did not know their work, and most of 
w^hom had never seen their officers before. 

What could be expected of such mad cour- 
age as that ? It is one thing to be a brave man ; 
it is another to be a wise one. Of course you 
will say that Captain Lawrence was brave ; but 
no one can sav he was wise. Poor fellow, he 



LAWRENCE DIES 171 

was simply throwing away his ship and his 
Hfe. 

It was in the morning of June i that the 
Chesapeake left the wharves of Boston. It 
was 5.50 in the afternoon that she met the 
Shannon and the battle began. 

Both ships fired as fast as they could load, 
but the men of the Shannon were much better 
hands at their work, and their balls tore the 
American ship in a terrible manner. A mus- 
ket-ball struck Lawrence in the leg, but he 
would not go below. The rigging of the Chesa- 
peake was badly cut, the men at the wheel were 
shot, and in ten minutes the two ships drifted 
together. 

Men on each side now rushed to board the 
enemy's ship, and there was a hand-to-hand 
fight at the bulwarks of the two ships. At this 
moment Captain Lawrence was shot through 
the body and fell with a mortal wound. He 
was carried below. 

As he lay in great pain he noticed that the 
firing had almost ceased. Calling a surgeon's 
mate to him, he said, "Tell the men to fire 
faster, and not give up the ship; the colors 
shall wave while I live." 



172 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

Unfortunately, these words were spoken in 
the moment of defeat. Captain Broke, fol- 
lowed by a number of his men, had sprung to 
the deck of the Chesapeake, and a desperate 
struggle began. The Americans fought stub- 
bornly, but the fire from the trained men in the 
Shannon's tops and the rush of British on 
board soon gave Broke and his men the vic- 
tory. The daring Broke fell with a cut that 
laid open his skull, but in a few moments the 
Americans were driven below. 

The Chesapeake was taken in just fifteen 
minutes, one minute more than the Hornet had 
taken to capture the Peacock. 

The British hauled down the American flag, 
and then hoisted it again with a white flag to 
show their victory. But the sailor who did the 
work, by mistake got the white flag under the 
Stars and Stripes. 

When the gunners in the Shannon saw the 
Yankee flag flying they fired again, and this 
time killed and wounded a number of their own 
men, one of them being an officer. 

The gallant Lawrence never know that his 
ship was lost. He lived until the Shannon 
reached Halifax with her prize, but he became 




00 



o 
>■ 

6 



LAWRENCE DIES 173 

delirious, and kept repeating over and over 
again his last order — ''Don't give up the ship!" 

With these words he died. With these words 
his memory has become immortal. ''Don't give 
up the ship!" is the motto of the American 
navy, and will not be forgotten while our great 
Republic survives. So Captain Lawrence 
gained greater renown in defeat than most men 
have won in victory. 

The capture of the Chesapeake was a piece 
of wonderful good fortune for the British, to 
judge by the way they boasted of it. As Cap- 
tain Pearson had been made a knight for losing 
the Serapis, so Captain Broke was made a 
baronet for taking the Chesapeake. A "baro- 
net," you must know, is a higher title than a 
"knight," though they both use the handle of 
"Sir" to their names. 

The work of the Shannon proved — so the 
British historians said — that, "if the odds were 
anything like equal, a British frigate could 
always whip an American, and in a hand-to- 
hand conflict such would invariably be the 
case." 

Such things are easy to say, when one does 
not care about telling the truth. Suppose we 



174 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

give now what a French historian, who be- 
Heved in teUing the truth, said of this fight, — 

** Captain Broke had commanded the Shan- 
non for nearly seven years ; Captain Lawrence 
had commanded the Chesapeake for but a few 
days. The Shannon had cruised for eighteen 
months on the coast of America; the Chesa- 
peake was newly out of harbor. The Shannon 
had a crew long accustomed to habits of strict 
obedience ; the Chesapeake was manned by men 
who had just been engaged in mutiny. The 
Americans were wrong to accuse fortune on 
this occasion. Fortune was not fickle, she was 
merely logical." 

That is about the same as to say that the 
Chesapeake was given away to the enemy. 
After that there were no more ships sent out of 
port unfit to fight, merely to please the people. 
It was a lesson the people needed. 

The body of the brave Lawrence was laid on 
the quarter-deck of the Chesapeake wrapped in 
an American flag. It was then placed in a coffin 
and taken ashore, where it was met by a regi- 
ment of British troops and a band that played 
the "Death March in Saul." The sword of 
the dead hero lay on his coffin. In the end his 



LAWRENCE DIES 175 

body was buried in the cemetery of Trinity 
Church, New York. A monument stands to- 
day over his grave, and on it are the words : 

"Neither the fury of battle, the anguish of 
a mortal wound, nor the horrors of approach- 
ing death could subdue his gallant spirit. His 
dying words were 

'Don't give up the ship !' " 



CHAPTER XVI 

COMMODORE PERRY WHIPS THE 
BRITISH ON LAKE ERIE 



"We Have Met the Enemy and They Are 
Ours" 

IN the year 1813, when war was going on 
between England and the United States, 
the whole northern part of this country 
was a vast forest. An ocean of trees stretched 
away from the seaside in Maine for a thousand 
miles to the west, and ended in the broad prai- 
ries of the Mississippi region. 

The chief inhabitants of this grand forest 
were the moose and the deer, the wolf and the 
panther, the wild turkey and the partridge, the 
red Indian and the white hunter and trapper. 
It was a very different country from what we 
see to-day, for now its trees are replaced by 
busy towns and fertile fields. 

But in one way there has been no change. 
North of the forest lands spread the Great 

(176) 



PERRY ON LAKE ERIE 177 

Lakes, the splendid inland seas of our northern 
border ; and these were then what they are now, 
vast plains of water where all the ships of all 
the nations might sail. 

Along the shores of these mighty lakes 
fighting was going on ; at Detroit on the west ; 
at Niagara on the east. Soon war-vessels 
began to be built and set afloat on the waters 
of the lakes. And these vessels after a time 
came together in fierce conflict. I have now to 
tell the story of a famous battle between these 
lake men-of-war. There was then in our navy 
a young man named Oliver Hazard Perry. He 
was full of the spirit of fight, but, while others 
were winning victories on the high seas, he 
was given nothing better to do than to com- 
mand a fleet of gunboats at Newport, Rhode 
Island. 

Perry became very tired of this. He wanted 
to be where fighting was going on, and he kept 
worrying the Navy Department for some ac- 
tive work. So at last he was ordered to go to 
the lakes, with the best men he had, and get 
ready to fight the British there. Perry re- 
ceived the order on February 17, 181 3, and 
before night he and fifty of his men were on 



178 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

their way west in sleighs; for the ground was 
covered deep with snow. 

The sleighing was good, but the roads were 
bad and long; and it took him and his men two 
weeks to reach Sackett's Harbor, at the north 
end of Lake Ontario. From that place he went 
to Presque Isle, on Lake Erie, where the fine 
City of Erie now stands. Then only the seed 
of a city was planted there, in a small village, 
and the forest came down to the lake. 

Captain Perry did not go to sleep when he 
got to the water-side. He was not one of the 
sleepy sort. He wanted vessels and he wanted 
them quickly. The British had warships on 
the lake, and Perry did not intend to let them 
have it all to themselves. 

When he got to Erie he found Captain Dob- 
bins, an old shipbuilder, hard at work. In the 
woods around were splendid trees, white and 
black oak and chestnut, for planking, and pine 
for the decks. The axe was busy at these 
giants of the forest; and so fast did the men 
work, that a tree which was waving in the 
forest when the sun rose might be cut down 
and hewn into ship-timber before the sun set. 
In that way Perry's fleet grew like magic out 



PERRY ON LAKE ERIE 179 

of the forest. While the ships were building, 
cannon and stores were brought from Pitts- 
burgh by way of the Allegheny River and its 
branches. And Perry went to Niagara River, 
where he helped capture a fine brig, called the 
Caledonia, from the British. 

Captain Dobbins built two more brigs, one 
of w^hich Perry named the Niagara. The other 
he called Lawrence, after Captain Lawrence, 
the story of whose life and death you have just 
read. 

Have any of you ever heard the story of the 
man who built a wagon in his barn and then 
found it too wide to go out through the door? 
Perry was in the same trouble. His new ships 
were too big to get out into the lake. There 
was a bar at the mouth of the river with only 
four feet of water on it. That was not deep 
enough to float his new vessels. And he was 
in a hurry to get these in deep water; for he 
knew the British fleet would soon be down to 
try to destroy them. 

How would you work to get a six-foot ves- 
sel over a four-foot sand bar? Well, that 
doesn't matter ; all we care for is the way Cap- 
tain Perry did it. He took two big scows and 



i8o OUR NAVAL HEROES 

put one on each side of the Lawrence. Then 
he filled them with water till the waves washed 
over their decks. When they had sunk so far 
they were tied fast to the brig and the water 
was pumped out of them. As the water went 
out they rose and lifted the Lawrence between 
them until there were several feet of water 
below her keel. Now the brig was hauled on 
the bar until she touched the bottom ; then she 
was lifted again in the same way. This second 
time took her out to deep water. Next, the 
Niagara was lifted over the bar in the same 
manner. 

The next day the British, who had been 
taking things very easily, came sailing down to 
destroy Perry's ships. But they opened their 
eyes wide when they saw them afloat on the 
lake. They had lost their chance by wasting 
their time. 

Perry picked up men for his vessels wher- 
ever he could get them. The most of those to 
be had were landsmen. But he had his fifty 
good men from Newport and a hundred were 
sent him from the coast. Some of these had 
been on the Constitution in her great fight with 
the Guerriere. 




< )i.i\|-i< 1 1. I'i:i<m- 



PERRY ON LAKE ERIE 



I8I 



Early in August all was ready, and he set 
sail. Early in September he was in Put-in Bay, 
at the west end of Lake Erie, and here the 
British came looking for him and his ships. 

Perry was now the commodore of a fleet of 
nine vessels, — the brigs Lazvrence, Niagara 
and Caledonia, five schooners, and one sloop. 
Captain Barclay, the British commander, had 
only six vessels, but some of them were larger 
than Perry's. They were the ships Detroit and 
Queen Charlotte, a large brig, two schooners, 
and a sloop. Such were the fleets with which 
the great battle of Lake Erie was fought. 

I know you are getting tired of all this de- 
scription, and want to get on to the fighting. 
You don't like to be kept sailing in quiet waters 
when there is a fine storm ahead. Very well, 
we will go on. But one has to get his bricks 
ready before he can build his house. 

Well, then, on the loth of September, 1813, 
it being a fine summer day, with the sun shin- 
ing brightly, Perry and his men sailed out 
from Put-in Bay and came in sight of the Brit- 
ish fleet over the waters of the lake. 

What Captain Perry now did was fine. He 
hoisted a great blue flag, and when it unrolled 



i82 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

in the wind the men saw on it, in white letters, 
the d3'ing words of Captain Lawrence, "Don't 
give up the ship!" Was not that a grand sig- 
nal to give ? It must have put great spirit into 
the men, and made them feel that they would 
die like the gallant Lawrence before they would 
give up their ships. The men on both fleets 
were eager to fight, but the wind kept very 
light, and they came together slowly. It was 
near noon before they got near enough for 
their long guns to work. Then the British 
began to send balls skipping over the water, 
and soon after the Americans answered back. 
Now came the roar of battle, the flash of 
guns, the cloud of smoke that settled down and 
half hid everything. The Americans came on 
in a long line, head on for the British, who 
awaited their approach. Perry's flagship, the 
Lazvrcnce, was near the head of the line. It 
soon plunged into the very thick of the fight, 
with only two little schooners to help it. The 
wind may have been too light for the rest of 
the fleet to come up. We do not know just 
what kept them back, but at any rate, they 
didn't come up, and the Lazvrence was left to 
fight alone. 



PERRY ON LAKE ERIE 183 

Never had a vessel been in a worse plight 
than was the Lawrence for the next two hours. 
She was half surrounded by the three large 
British vessels, the Detroit, the Queen Char- 
lotte, and the brig Hunter, all pouring in their 
fire at once, while she had to fight them all. 
On the Lawrence and the two schooners 
there were only seven long guns against thirty- 
six which were pelting Perry's flagship from 
the British fleet. 

This was great odds. But overhead there 
floated the words, "Don't give up the ship"; 
so the brave Perry pushed on till he was close 
to the Detroit, and worked away, for life or 
death, with all his guns, long and short. 

Oh, what a dreadful time there was on Per- 
ry's flagship during those sad two hours. The 
great guns roared, the thick smoke rose, the 
balls tore through her sides, sending splinters 
flying like sharp arrows to right and left. Men 
fell like leaves blown down by a gale. Blood 
splashed on the living and flowed over the dead. 
The surgeon's mates were kept busy carrying 
the wounded below, where the surgeon dressed 
their wounds. 

Captain Perry's little brother, a boy of only 



1 84 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

thirteen years, was on the ship, and stood be- 
side him as brave as himself. Two bullets went 
through the boy's hat; then a splinter cut 
through his clothes; still he did not flinch. 
Soon after, he was knocked down and the cap- 
tain grew pale with fear. But up jumped the 
boy again. It was only a flying hammock that 
had struck him. That little fellow was a true 
sailor boy, and had in him plenty of Yankee 
grit. 

I would not, if I could, tell you all the horrors 
of those two hours. It is not pleasant reading. 
The cannon balls even came through the ves- 
sel's sides among the wounded, and killed 
some of them where they lay. At the end of 
the fight the Lazvrence was a mere wreck. Her 
bowsprit and masts were nearly all cut away, 
and out of more than a hundred men only four- 
teen were unhurt. There was not a gun left 
that could be worked. 

Most men in such a case would have pulled 
down their flag. But Oliver Perry had the 
spirit of Paul Jones, and he did not forget the 
words on his flag — "Don't give up the ship." 

During those dread two hours the Niagara, 
under Lieutenant Elliott, had kept out of the 



PERRY ON LAKE ERIE 185 

fight. Now it came sailing up before a fresh- 
ening breeze. 

As soon as Perry saw this fresh ship he 
made up his mind what to do. He had a boat 
lowered with four men in it. His little brother 
leaped in after them. Then he stepped aboard 
with the flag bearing Lawrence's motto on 
his shoulder, and was rowed away to the 
Niagara. As soon as the British saw this 
little boat on the water, with Perry standing 
upright, wrapped in the flag he had fought 
for so bravely, they turned all their guns and 
fired at it. Cannon and musket balls tore the 
water round it. It looked as if nothing would 
save those devoted men from death. 

"Sit down!" cried Perry's men. "We will 
stop rowing if you don't sit down." 

So Perry sat down, and when a ball came 
crashing through the side of the boat he took 
off his coat and plugged up the hole. 

Providence favored him and his men. They 
reached the Niagara without being hurt. The 
British had fired in vain. Perry sprang on 
board and ordered the men to raise the flag. 

"How goes the day?" asked Lieutenant 
Elliott. 



1 86 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

''Bad enough," said Perry. "Why are the 
gunboats so far back?" 

"I will bring them up," said Elliott. 

"Do so," said Perry. 

Elliott jumped into the boat which Perry 
had just left, and rowed away. Up to the mast- 
head went the great blue banner with the 
motto, "Don't give up the ship." Signals were 
given for all the vessels to close in on the 
enemy, and the Niagara bore down under full 
sail. 

The Lazvrence was out of the fight. Rent 
and torn, with only a handful of her crew on 
their feet, and not a gun that could be fired, 
her day was done. Her flag was pulled down 
by the few men left to save themselves. The 
British had no time to take possession, for the 
Niagara was on them, fresh for the fray, like a 
new horse in the race. 

Right through the British fleet this new ship 
went. Three of their ships were on one side of 
her and two on the other, and all only a few 
yards away. As she went her guns spoke out, 
sweeping their decks and tearing through their 
timbers. 

The Lazvrence had already done her share 



PERRY ON LAKE ERIE 187 

of work on these vessels, and this new pound- 
ing was more than they could stand. The 
other American vessels also were pouring their 
shot into the foe. Flesh and blood could not 
bear this. Men were falling like grass before 
the scythe. A man sprang up on the rail of 
the Detroit and waved a white flag to show 
that they had surrendered. The great fight 
was over. The British had given up. 

Perry announced his victory in words that 
have become historic: "We have met the 
enemy and they are ours." 

This famous despatch was wTitten with a 
pencil on the back of an old letter, with his hat 
for a table. It was sent to General Harrison, 
who commanded an army nearby. Harrison 
at once led his cheering soldiers against the 
enemy, and gave them one of the worst defeats 
of the war. 

When the news of the victory spread over 
the country the people were wild with joy. 
Congress thanked Perry and voted gold medals 
to him and Elliott, and honors or rewards to 
all the officers and men. But over the whole 
country it was thought that Elliott had earned 
disgrace instead of a gold medal by keeping so 



iSS OUR XAV-\L HEROES 

long out of die tight. He said he had only 
obeyed orders, hut people tliought tliat was a 
time to break orders. 

Pern- was made a full captain by Congxess. 
This was then the highest rank in the navy. 
But he took no more part in the war. Six 
years later he was sent ^^^th a squadron to 
South America, and there he took the yellow 
fever and died. Thus passed away one of the 
most brilliant and most famous officers of the 
American navv. 



CHAPTER XMI 

COMMODORE PORTER GAIXS GLORY 
IN THE PACIFIC 



The Gallant Fight of the "Essex" 
Ac.AixsT Great Odds 

ANY of you who have read much of Amer- 
ican history must have often met with 
the names of Porter and Farragiit. 
There are no greater names in our naval his- 
tory. There was Captain David Porter and 
his two gallant sons, all men of fame. And the 
still more famous Admiral Farragut began his 
career under the brave old captain of the War 
of 1812. 

I am going now to tell you about David 
Porter and the little Essex, a ship whose name 
the British did not like to hear. And I have 
spoken of Farragut from the fact that he began 
his naval career tmder Captain Porter. 

Captain Porter was born in 1780. before the 
Revolution had ended. His father was a sea- 

1,189) 



I90 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

captain; and when the boy was sixteen years 
old, he stood by his father's side on the schooner 
£//^a and helped to light off a British press- 
gang which wanted to rob it of some of its 
sailors. The press-gang was a company of 
men who seized men wherever they found them, 
and dragged them into the British na\y, where 
they were compelled to serve as sailors or ma- 
rines. It was a cruel and unjust way of get- 
ting men, and the Americans resisted it wher- 
ever they could. In this particular fight several 
men were killed and wounded, and the press- 
gang thought it best to let the Elica alone. 

\Mien the lad was seventeen he was twice 
seized by press-men and taken to serve in the 
British navy, but both times he escaped. Then 
he joined the American navy as a midshipman. 

Young Porter soon showed what was in him. 
In the naval war with France he was put on a 
French prize that was full of prisoners who 
wanted to seize the ship. For three days Por- 
ter helped to watch them, and in all that time 
he did not take a minute's sleep. 

Afterward, in a pilot-boat, with fifteen men 
the boy hero attacked a French privateer with 
forty men and a barge with thirty men. Porter, 



PORTER IN THE PACIFIC 191 

with his brave fifteen, boarded the privateer 
and fought hke a hero. After more than half 
its crew were killed and wounded the privateer 
surrendered. In this hard fight not one of 
Porter's men was hurt. 

That was only one of the things which young 
Porter did. When the war with the pirates of 
Tripoli began, he was there, and again did 
some daring deeds. He was on the PhiladelpJiia 
when that good ship ran aground and was 
taken by the Moors, and he was held a prisoner 
till the end of the war. Here you have an out- 
line of the early history of David Porter. 

When the War of 18 12 broke out, he was 
made captain of the Essex. The Essex was a 
little frigate that had been built in the Revo- 
lution. It was not fit to fight with the larger 
British frigates, but with David Porter on its 
quarter-deck it was sure to make its mark. 

On the Essex with him was a fine little mid- 
shipman, only eleven years old, who had been 
brought up in the Porter family. His name 
was David G. Farragut. I shall have a good 
story of him to tell you later on, for he grew 
up to be one of the bravest and greatest men 
in the American navy. 



ig2 OUR XAVAL HEROES 

On July 2, 1S12, only two week? after \\-ar 
was declared. Porter was off to sea in the 
£.c.crx, on tlie hunt for prizes and glon*. He 
grot some prizes, but it was more than a month 
before he had a chance for glor\-. Then he 
came in sight of a Britisli man-of-war, a sight 
that pleased him ver}* much. 

Up came the fjrort'x. pretending to be a mer- 
chant sliip and with the British flag flying. 
That is one of the tricks which na\-al cheers 
play. They tliink it right to cheat an enemy. 
The stranger came bowling downi under full 
sail and tired a gun as a hint for the supposevi 
merchanmian to stop. So the Eof.'ft\r backevl 
her sails and hove to imtil the stranger had 
passed her stem. 

Porter was now where he had wantevi to get. 
He had the ad\-antage of the wind — what 
sailors call the "weather-gage." So down 
came the British flag and up \\'ent the Stars 
and Stripes: and the ports were thrown open, 
showing the iron mouths of the guns, ready to 
bark. 

^^^len the English sailors saw this they 
cheered loudly and ran to their grims. They 
fired in their usual hasty fashion, making much 



rORTER I\ THE PACIEIC lo,; 

noise but doing no hann. Toner waited till 
he was ready to do gxxxi work, and then tired 
a braadside that fairly staggered the IVitish 
ship. 

The Englishman had not barg'ained for sneh 
a saline as this, and now tried to nm away. 
But the jE".v\NV.r had the \\ ind. and in eight min- 
utes was alongside. And in those eight min- 
utes her gims were busy as guns eould be. 
Then do^^^l eame the British tlag. That was 
the shortest tight in the war. 

The prize was found to be tbie corvette Alrrf. 
A corve'te is a little ship with not many gims. 
She was not nearly strong etiongh for the 
f.vwv.r. and g'ave up when only three of her 
men were wounded. But she had been shot so 
full of holes that she already had seven feet of 
\Yater in her hold and was in danger of sink- 
ing. It kept the men of the f.c.vwr busy enough 
to pump her out and stop up the holes, so that 
she should not go to the bottom. Captain 
Porter did not want to lose his prize. He came 
near losing it. and his ship too, in another way, 
as I have soon to tell. 

You nmst remember that he had taken other 
prizes and sent them home with some oi his 

13 



194 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

men. So he had a large number of prisoners, 
some of them soldiers taken from one of his 
prizes. There were many more British on 
board than there were Americans, and some of 
tliem formed a plot to capture the ship. They 
might have done it, too, but for the little mid- 
shipman, David Farragut. 

This little chap was lying in his hammock, 
when he saw an Englishman come along with 
a pistol in his hand. This was the leader in 
the plot who was looking around to see if all 
was ready for his men to break out on the 
Americans. 

He came up to the hammock where the boy 
lay and looked in at him. The bright young 
fellow then had his eyes tight shut and seemed 
to be fast asleep. After looking a minute the 
man went away. The instant he was out of 
sight up jumped the lad and ran to the captain's 
cabin. You may be sure he did not take many 
words to tell what he had seen. 

Captain Porter knew there was no time to 
be lost. He sprang out of bed in haste and ran 
to the deck. Here he gave a loud yell of "Fire ! 
Fire!" 

In a minute the men came tumbling up from 



PORTER IN THE PACIFIC 195 

below like so many rats. They had been 
trained what to do in case of a night-fire and 
every man ran to his place. Captain Porter 
had even built fires that sent up volumes of 
smoke, so as to make them quick to act and to 
steady their nerves. 

While the cry of fire roused the Americans, 
it scared the conspirators, and before they 
could get back their wits the sailors were on 
them. It did not take long to lock them up 
again. In that way Porter and Farragut saved 
their ship. 

The time was coming in which he would 
lose his ship, but the way he lost it brought him, 
new fame. I must tell you how this came 
about. When the Constitution and the Hornet, 
as I have told you in another story, were in 
the waters of Brazil, the Essex was sent to 
join them. You know what was done there, 
how the Constitution w^hipped and sunk the 
Java, and the Hornet did the same for the 
Peacock. 

There was no such luck for the Essex, and 
after his fellow-ships had gone north Captain 
Porter went cruising on his own account. In 
the Pacific Ocean were dozens of British whal- 



196 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

ers and other ships. Here was a fine field for 
prizes. So he set sail, went round the stormy 
Cape Horn in a hurricane, and was soon in the 
great ocean of the west. 

I shall not tell you the whole story of this 
cruise. The Essex here was like a hawk 
among a flock of partridges. She took prize 
after prize, until she had about a dozen valu- 
able ships. 

When the news of what Porter was doing 
reached England, there was a sort of panic. 
Something must be done with this fellow or 
he would clear the Pacific of British trade. So 
a number of frigates were sent in the hunt for 
him. They were to get him in any way they 
could. 

After a long cruise on the broad Pacific, the 
Essex reached the port of Valparaiso, on the 
coast of Chile, in South America. She had 
with her one of her prizes, the Essex Junior. 
Here Porter heard that a British frigate, the 
Phoehe, was looking for him. That pleased 
him. He wanted to come across a British war- 
vessel, so he concluded to wait for her. He 
was anxious for something more lively than 
chasing whaling ships. 



PORTER IN THE PACIFIC 197 

He was not there long before the Phoebe 
came, and with her a small warship, the 
Chertib. 

When the Phoebe came in sight o£ the Essex 
it sailed close up. Its captain had been told 
that half the American crew were ashore, and 
very likely full of Spanish wine. Biit wdien he 
got near he saw the Yankee sailors at their 
guns and ready to fight. When he saw this he 
changed his mind. He jumped on a gun and 
said: — 

"Captain Hillyar's comphments to Captain 
Porter, and hopes he is well." 

"Very well, I thank you," said Porter. "But 
I hope you will not come too near for fear some 
accident might take place which would be dis- 
agreeable to you." 

"I had no intention of coming on board," 
said Captain Hillyar, when he saw the look of 
things on the deck of the Essex. "I am sorry 
I came so near you." 

"Well, you have no business where you are," 
said Porter. "If you touch a rope yarn of this 
ship, I shall board instantly." 

With that the Phoebe wore round and went 
ofif. It was a neutral port and there was a 



igS OUR NAVAL HEROES 

good excuse for not fighting, but it was well 
for Porter that he was ready. 

A few days later he heard that some other 
British ships were coming from Valparaiso and 
he concluded to put to sea. He didn't want to 
fight a whole fleet. But the wind treated him 
badly. As he sailed out a squall struck the 
Essex and knocked her maintopmast into the 
sea. l^orter now ran into a small bay near at 
hand and dropped anchor close to the shore. 

Here was the chance for the Phoebe and the 
Cherub. They could stand off and hammer the 
Essex where she could not fire back. They 
had over thirty long guns while the Essex haci 
only six, and only three of these could be used. 
The rest of her guns were short ones that 
would not send a ball far enough to reach the 
British ships. 

The Essex was in a trap. The British began 
to pour solid iron into her at the rate of nearly 
ten pounds to her one. For two hours this 
was kept up. There was frightful slaughter 
on the Essex. Her men were falling like dead 
leaves, but Porter would not yield. 

After this went on for some time there came 
a change in the wind, and the Essex spread 



PORTER IN THE PACIFIC 199 

what sail she had and tried to get nearer. But 
the Phoebe would not wait for her, but sailed 
away and kept pumping balls into her. 

Soon the wind changed again. Now all 
hope was gone. The American crew was being 
murdered and could not get near the British. 
Porter tried to run his ship ashore, intending 
to fight to the last and then blow her up. 

But the treacherous wind shifted again and 
he could not even reach the shore. Dead and 
wounded men lay everywhere. Flames were 
rising in the hold. Water was pouring into 
shot holes. The good ship had fought her last 
and it was madness to go on. So at 6.20 
o'clock, tv/o and a half hours after the fight 
began, her flag came down and the battle was 
over. 

The story of the cruise of the Essex and her 
great struggle against odds was written for 
us by her young midshipman — David Far- 
ragut. President Roosevelt, in his Naval His- 
tory of the War of 181 2, says the following 
true words about Captain Porter's brave fight : 

"As an exhibition of dogged courage it has 
never been surpassed since the time when the 
Dutch Captain Keasoon, after fighting two 



200 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

long days, blew up his disabled ship, devoting 
himself and all his crew to death, rather than 
surrender to the hereditary foes of his race.'' 
Porter was the man to do the same thing, but 
he felt he had no right to send all his men to 
death. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

COMMODORE MacDONOUGH'S VIC- 
TORY ON LAKE CHAMPLAIN 



How General Prevost and the British 
Ran Away 

THE United States is a country rich in 
lakes. They might be named by the 
thousands. But out of this host of lakes 
very few are known in history, and of them all 
much the most famous is Lake Champlain. 

Do you wish to know why? Well, because 
this lake forms a natural waterway from 
Canada down into the States. If you look on 
a map you will see that Lake Champlain and 
Lake George stretch down nearly to the Hud- 
son River and that their waters flow north into 
the great St. Lawrence River. So these lakes 
make the easiest way to send trade, and troops 
as well, down from Canada into New York and 
New England. 

Now just let us take a look back in history. 

(201) 



202 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

The very first battle in the north of our coun- 
try was fought on Lake Champlain. This was 
in 1609, when Samuel de Champlain and his 
Indian friends came down this lake in canoes 
to fight with the Iroquois tribes of New 
York. 

Then in 1756 the French and Indians did 
the same thing. They came in a fleet of boats 
and canoes and fought the English on Lake 
George. Twenty years afterward there was 
the fierce fight which General Arnold made on 
this lake, of which I have told you. Later on 
General Burgoyne came down Lakes Cham- 
plain and George with a great army. He never 
went back again, for he and his army were 
taken prisoners by the brave Colonials. But 
the last and greatest of all the battles on the 
lakes was that of 1814. It is of this I am now 
about to tell you. 

You should know that the British again tried 
what they had done when they sent Burgoyne 
down the lakes. This time it was Sir George 
Prevost who was sent, with an army of more 
than 11,000 men, to conquer New York. He 
didn't do it any more than Burgoyne did, for 
Lieutenant Thomas MacDonough was in the 



VICTORY ON LAKE CHAMPLAIN 203 

way. I am going to tell you how the gallant 
MacDonoiigh stopped him. 

MacDonough was a young man, as Perry 
was. He had served, as a boy, in the war with 
Tripoli. In 1806, when he was only twenty 
years old, he gave a Yankee lesson to a British 
captain who wanted to carry off an American 
sailor. 

This was at Gibraltar, where British guns 
were as thick as blackbirds ; but the young lieu- 
tenant took the man out of the English boat 
and then dared the captain to try to take him 
back again. The captain blustered ; but he did 
not try, in spite of all his guns. 

In 18 1 3 MacDonough was sent to take care 
of affairs on Lake Champlain. No better man 
could have been sent. He did what Perry had 
done; he set himself to build ships and get 
guns and powder and shot and prepare for 
war. The British were building ships, too, for 
they wanted to be masters of the lake before 
they sent their army down. So the sounds of 
the axe and saw and hammer came before the 
sound of cannon on the lake. 

MacDonough did not let the grass grow 
under his feet. When he heard that the Brit- 



204 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

ish were building a big frigate, he set to work 
to build a brig. The keel was laid on July 
29, and she was launched on August 16 — 
only eighteen days! There must have been 
some lively jumping about in the wildwoods 
shipyard just then. 

The young commander had no time to waste, 
for the British were coming. The great war 
in Europe with Napoleon was over and Eng- 
land had plenty of ships and men to spare. 
A flock of her white-winged frigates came 
sailing over the ocean and swarmed like bees 
along our coast. And an army of the men 
who had fought against Napoleon was sent to 
Canada to invade New York. It was thought 
the Yankees could not stand long before vet- 
erans like these. 

Down marched the British army and down 
sailed the British fleet. But MacDonough was 
not caught napping. He was ready for the 
British ships when they came. 

And now, before the battle begins, let us 
give a few names and figures; for these are 
things you must know. The Americans had 
four vessels and ten gunboats. The vessels 
were the ship Saratoga, the brig Eagle, the 




> 



u 



VICTORY ON LAKE CHAMPLAIN 205 

schooner Ticonderoga, and the sloop Preble. 
The British had the frigate Confiance, larger 
than any of the American ships, the brig Lin- 
net, the sloops Chubb and Finch, and thirteen 
gunboats. And the British were better off for 
guns and men, though the difference was not 
great. Such were the two fleets that came to- 
gether on a bright Sunday on September 11, 
18 14, to see which should be master of Lake 
Champlain. 

The American ships were drawn up across 
Plattsburg Bay, and up this bay came the Brit- 
ish fleet to attack them, just as Carleton's ves- 
sels had come up to attack Arnold forty years 
before. 

At Plattsburg was the British army, and 
opposite, across Saranac River, lay a much 
smaller force of American regulars and militia. 
They could easily see the ships, but they were 
too busy for that, for the soldiers were fighting 
on land while the sailors were fighting on 
water. Bad work that for a sunny September 
Sunday, wasn't it? 

MacDonough had stretched his ships^ in a 
line across the bay, and had anchors down at 
bow and stern, with ropes tied to the anchor 



2o6 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

chains so that the ships could be swung round 
easily. Remember that, for that won him the 
battle. 

It was still early in the day when the British 
came sailing up, firing as soon as they came 
near enough. These first shots did no harm, 
but they did a comical thing. One of them 
struck a hen-coop on the Saratoga, in which 
one of the sailors kept a fighting cock. The 
coop was knocked to pieces, and into the rig- 
ging flew the brave cock, flapping his wings 
at the British vessels and crowing defiance to 
them, while the sailors laughed and cheered. 

But the battle did not fairly begin until the 
great frigate Confiance came up and dropped 
anchor a few hundred yards from the Sara- 
toga. Then she blazed away with all the guns 
on that side of her deck. 

This was a terrible broadside, the worst any 
American ship had felt in the whole war. 
Every shot hit the Saratoga and tore through 
her timbers, sending splinters flying like hail. 
So frightful was the shock that nearly half 
the crew were thrown to the deck. About forty 
of them did not get up again ; they were either 
killed or wounded, Afew broadsides like that 



VICTORY ON LAKE CHAMPLAIN 207 

would have ended the fight, for it would have 
left the Saratoga without men. 

On both sides now the cannon roared and 
the shots flew, but the British guns were the 
best and the Americans had the worst of it. 
The commodore was knocked down twice. The 
last time he was hit with the head of a man 
that had been shot off and came whirling 
through the air. 

"The commodore is killed!" cried the men; 
but in a trice he was up again, and aiming and 
firing one of his own guns. 

This dreadful work went on for two hours. 
All that time the two biggest British vessels 
were pelting the Saratoga, and the other 
American ships were not helping her much. 
Red-hot shot were fired, which set her on fire 
more than once. 

At the end MacDonough had not a single 
gun left to fire back. It looked as if all was up 
with the Americans, all of whose ships were 
being battered by the enemy. But Commodore 
MacDonough was not yet at the end of his 
plans. He now cut loose his stern anchor and 
bade his men pull on the rope that led to the 
bow anchor. In a minute the ship began to 



2o8 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

swing round. Soon she had a new side turned 
to the foe. Not a gun had been fired on this 
side. When tlie British captain saw what the 
Americans were doing he tried the same thing. 
But it did not work as well with him. The 
Coniiance began to swing round, but when 
she got her stern turned to the Americans she 
stuck fast. Pull and haul as they might, the 
sailors could not move her another inch. 

Here was a splendid chance for the men on 
the Saratoga. They poured their broadsides 
into the stern of the Confiance and raked her 
from end to end, while her position was a help- 
less one. The men fled from the guns. The 
ship was being torn into splinters. No hope 
for her was left. She could not fire a gun. 
Her captain was dead, but her lieutenant saw 
that all was over, and down came her flag. 

Then the Saratoga turned on the brig Lin- 
net and served her in the same fashion. 

That ended the battle. The two sloops had 
surrendered before, the gunboats were driven 
away by the Ticonderoga, and the hard fight 
was done. Once more the Americans were 
victors. Perry had won one lake. MacDon- 
ough had won another. 



VICTORY ON LAKE CHAMPLAIN 209 

And that was not the whole of it. For as 
soon as the American soldiers saw the British 
flag down and the Stars and Stripes still afloat, 
they set up a shout that rang back from the 
Vermont hills. 

Sir George Prevost, though he had an army 
of veterans twice as strong as the American 
army of militia, broke camp and sneaked away 
under cover of a storm. 



u 



CHAPTER XIX 

FOUR NAVAL HEROES IN ONE 
CHAPTER 



Fights With the Pirates of the Gulf 
AND THE Corsairs of the Medi- 
terranean 

WE have so far been reading the story of 
legal warfare; now let us turn to that 
of the wild warfare of the pirate ships. 
Pirates swarmed during and after the War of 
1812, and the United States had its hands full 
in dealing with them. They haunted the Gulf 
of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, and they 
went back to their old bad work in the Mediter- 
ranean. They kept our naval leaders busy 
enough for a number of years. 

The first we shall speak of are the Lafittes, 
the famous sea-rovers of the Gulf of Alexico. 
Those men had their hiding places in the low- 
lands of Louisiana, where there are reedy 
streams and grassy islands by the hundreds, 

(yio) 



FOUR NAVAL HEROES 211 

winding in and out in a regular network. 
From these lurking places the pirate ships 
would dash out to capture vessels and then 
hurry back to their haunts. 

The Lafittes (Jean and Pierre) had a whole 
fleet of pirate ships, and were so daring that 
they walked the streets of New Orleans as if 
that city belonged to them, and boldly sold their 
stolen goods in its marts, and nobody meddled 
with them. 

But the time came when they were attacked 
in their haunts and the whole gang was broken 
up. This v/as near the end of the war, when 
the government had some ships to spare. After 
that they helped General Jackson in the cele- 
brated battle of New Orleans, and fought so 
well that they were forgiven and were thanked 
for their services. 

When the War of 181 2 was over many of 
the privateers became pirates. A privateer, 
you know, is something like a pirate. He robs 
one nation, while a pirate robs all. So hun- 
dreds of those men became sea-robbers. 

After 1814 the seas of the West Indies were 
full of pirates. There was no end of hiding 
places among the thousand islands of these 



212 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

seas, where the pirates could bring their prizes 
and enjoy their wild revels. The warm airs, 
the ripe fruits and wild game of those shores 
made life easy and pleasant, and prizes were 
plentiful on the seas. 

When the war ended the United States 
gained a fine trade with the West Indies. But 
many of the ships that sailed there did not come 
home again, though there were no hurricanes 
to sink them. And some that did come home 
had been chased by ships that spread the 
rovers' black flag. So it was plain enough that 
pirates were at work. 

For years they had it their own way, with 
no one to trouble them. The government for 
3'^ears let them alone. But in time they grew 
so daring that in 1819 a squadron of warships 
was sent after them, under Commodore Perry, 
the hero of Lake Erie. Poor Perry caught 
the yellow fever and died, and his ships came 
home without doing anything. 

After that the pirates were let alone for two 
years. Now-a-days they would not have been 
let alone for two weeks, but things went more 
slowly then. No doubt the merchants who sent 
cargoes to sea complained of the dreadful do- 



FOUR NAVAL HEROES 213 

ings of the pirates, but the government did not 
trouble itself much, and the sea-robbers had 
their own way until 1821. 

By that time it was felt that something must 
be done, and a small fleet of pirate hunters was 
sent to the West Indies. It included the fa- 
mous sloop-of-war Hornet, the one which had 
fought the Peacock, and the brig Enterprise, 
which Decatur had been captain of in the 
Moorish war. 

The pirates were brave enough when they 
had only merchant ships to deal with, but they 
acted like cowards when they found warships 
on their track. They fled in all directions, and 
many of their ships and barges were taken. 
After that they kept quiet for a time, but soon 
they were at their old work again. 

In 1823 Captain David Porter, he who had 
fought so well in the Essex, was sent against 
them. The brave young Farragut was with 
him. He brought a number of barges and 
small vessels, so that he could follow the sea- 
robbers into their hiding places. 

One of these places was found at Cape Cruz, 
on Porto Rico. Here the pirate captain and 
his men fought like tigers, and the captain's 



214 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

wife stood by his side and fought as fiercely as 
he did. After the fight was over the sailors 
found a number of caves used by the pirates. 
In some of them were great bales of goods, and 
in others heaps of human bones. All this told 
a dreadful story of robbery and murder. 

Another fight took place at a haunt of ])irates 
on the coast of Cuba, where Lieutenant Allen, 
a navy olficer. had been killed the year before 
in an attack on the sea-robbers. 

Here there were over seventy pirates and 
only thirty-one Americans. Rut the sailors 
cried "Remember Allen!" antl dashed so 
fiercely at the pirate vessels, that the cowardly 
crews jumped overboard antl tried to swim 
ashore. But the hot-blooded sailors rowed in 
among them and cut fiercely with their cut- 
lasses, so that hardly any oi them escaped. 
Their leader, who was named Diabolito, or 
"Little Devil," was one of the killed. 

Tn this way the pirate hordes were broken 
up, after they had robbed and murdered among 
the beautiful West Lidia islands for many 
years. After that defeat they gave no more 
trouble. Among the pirates was Jean Lafitte, 
one of the Lafitte brothers, of whose doings you 



FOUR NAVAL HEROES 215 

liavc read above. After the l)attle of New 
Orleans he went to Texas, and in time became 
a pirate captain again. As late as 1822 his 
name was the terror of the (iUlf. 'I'hcii he 
disappeared and no one knew what had become 
of him. lie may have died in battle or have 
gone down in storm. 

But the pirates of the West Indies and the 
Gulf were not the only ones the United States 
had to deal with. You have read the story of 
the Moorish corsairs and of the fighting at 
Tripoli. Now I have something more to tell 
about them; for w^hen they heard that the 
United States was at war with England, they 
tried their old tricks again, capturing Amer- 
ican sailors and selling them for slaves. 

They had their own way until the war was 
over. Then two squadrons of war vessels were 
sent to the Mediterranean, one under Commo- 
dore Rainbridge, who had commanded the Con- 
stitution when she fought the Jazm, and the 
other under Commodore Decatur, the gallant 
sailor who had burned the Philadelphia in the 
harbor of Tripoli. 

Decatur got there first, and it did not take 
him long to bring the Moors to their senses. 



2i6 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

The trouble this time was with Algiers, not 
with Tripoli. Algiers was one of the strongest 
of the Moorish states. 

On the 15th of June, 1815, Decatur came in 
sight of the most powerful of the Algerine 
ships, a forty-six gun frigate, the Mashouda. 
Its commander was Rais Hammida, a fierce 
and daring fellow, who was called "the terror 
of the Mediterranean." He had risen from the 
lowest to the highest place in the navy, and had 
often shown his valor in battle. But his time 
for defeat had now come. 

When the Moorish admiral found himself 
amid a whole squadron of American warships, 
he set sail with ,all speed and made a wild dash 
for Algiers. But he had faster ships in his 
track and was soon headed off. 

The bold fellow had no chance at all, with 
half-a-dozen great ships around him, but he 
made a fine fight for his life. He did not save 
either his ship or his life, for a cannon ball cut 
him squarely in two; and when his lieutenant 
tried to run away, he came across the brig 
Epervier, which soon settled him. But the 
Mashouda had made a good fight against big 
odds, and deserved praise. 



FOUR NAVAL HEROES 217 

After that another Algerian ship was taken, 
and then Decatur sailed for Algiers. When 
he made signals the captain of the port came 
out. A black-bearded, high and mighty fellow 
he was. 

''Where is your navy?" asked Decatur. 

"It's all right," said the Algerian, "safe in 
some friendly port." 

"Not all of it, I fancy," said Decatur. "I 
have your frigate Mashouda and your brig Es- 
tido, and your admiral Hammida is killed." 

"I don't believe it," said the Algerian. 

"I can easily prove it," said Decatur, and he 
sent for the first lieutenant of the Mashouda. 

When the captain of the port saw him and 
heard his story, he changed his tone. His 
haughty manner passed away, and he begged 
that fighting should cease until a treaty could 
be made on shore. 

"Fighting will not cease until I have the 
treaty," said Decatur, sternly; "and a treaty 
will not be made anywhere but on board my 
ship." 

And so it was. The captain of the port came 
out next day with authority to make a treaty. 
But the captain did not want to return the prop- 



2i8 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

erty taken from the American ships, saying 
that it had been scattered among many hands. 

"I can't help that. It must be returned or 
paid for," said Decatur. 

Then the captain did not want to pay $10,000 
for a vessel that had been captured, and he 
wanted tribute from the United States. He 
told Decatur what a great man his master, 
"Omar the Terrible," was, and asked for a 
three hours truce. 

"Not a minute," said Decatur. "If your 
ships appear before the treaty is signed by the 
Dey, and the American prisoners are on board 
my ship, I shall capture every one of them." 

The only concession Decatur would make 
was to promise to return the Mashouda. But 
this was to be taken as a gift from the Amer- 
icans to the Dey, and as such it must not ap- 
pear in the treaty. The Algerian, finding that 
all his eloquence was wasted on the unyielding 
Yankee, hurried ashore with the treaty, ar- 
ranging to display a white flag in case of its 
being signed. 

An hour after he left an Algerian man-of- 
war was seen out to sea, and the American ves- 
sels got ready for action. But before anything 



FOUR NAVAL HEROES 219 

was done the captain of the port came out with 
a white flag. He brought the treaty and the 
prisoners. That ended the trouble with Al- 
giers. When the ten freed captives reached 
the deck some knelt down and gave thanks to 
God, while others hastened to kiss the Amer- 
ican flag. 

Then Decatur sailed to Tunis and Tripoli 
and made their rulers come to terms. From 
that day to this no American ship has been 
troubled by the corsairs of Barbary. 



CHAPTER XX 

COMMODORE PERRY OPENS JAPAN 
TO THE WORLD 



An Heroic Deed Without Bloodshed 

THERE are victories of peace as well as of 
war. Of course, you do not need to be 
told that. Everybody knows it. And 
it often takes as much courage to win these 
victories as it does those of war. I am going 
now to tell you of one of the greatest victories 
ever won by an American naval hero, and with- 
out firing a gun. 

Not far away from the great empire of China 
lies the island empire of Japan. Here the map 
shows us three or four large islands, but there 
are many hundreds of small ones, and in and 
out among them flow the smiling blue waters 
of the great Pacific Ocean. 

The people of Japan, like the people of China, 
for a long time did not like foreigners and did 
not want anything to do with them. But that 

(220) 



PERRY OPENS JAPAN 221 

was the fault of the foreigners themselves. For 
at first these people were glad to have strangers 
come among them, and treated them kindly, 
and let missionaries land and try to make 
Christians of them. But the Christian teach- 
ers were not wise ; for they interfered with the 
government as well as with the faith of the 
people. 

The Japanese soon grew angry at this. In 
the end they drove all the strangers away and 
killed all the Christian converts they could find. 
Then laws were made to keep all foreigners out 
of the country. They let a Dutch ship come 
once a year to bring some foreign goods to the 
seaport of Nagasaki, but they treated these 
Dutch traders as if they were of no account. 
And thus it continued in Japan for nearly three 
hundred years. 

The Japanese did not care much for the 
Dutch goods, but they liked to hear, now and 
then, what was going on in the world. Once a 
year they let some of the Dutch visit the capi- 
tal, but these had to crawl up to the emperor 
on their hands and knees and crawl out back- 
ward like crabs. They must have wanted the 
Japanese trade badly to do that. 



2 22 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

When a vessel happened to be wrecked on 
the coast of Japan, the sailors were held as 
prisoners and there was much trouble to get 
them off; and when Japanese were wrecked and 
sent home, no thanks were given. They were 
looked upon as no longer Japanese. 

The Russians had seaports in Siberia, which 
made them near neighbors to Japan, so they 
tried to make friends with the Japanese. But 
the island people would have nothing to do 
with them. Captain Golownin, of the Russian 
navy, landed on one of the islands ; but he was 
taken prisoner and kept for a long time and 
treated cruelly. That was the way things went 
in Japan till 1850 had come and passed. 

It took the Yankees to do what the Dutch 
and the Russians had failed in doing. After 
the war with Mexico, thousands of Americans 
went to California and other parts of the Pa- 
cific coast, and trading ships grew numerous on 
that great ocean. It was felt to be time that 
Japan should be made to open her ports to the 
commerce of the nations, and the United States 
tried to do it. 

Captain Matthew Calbraith Perry was se- 
lected for this great work. Captain Perry was 



PERRY OPENS JAPAN 223 

a brother of Oliver H. Perry, the hero of Lake 
Erie. He was a heutenant in that war, but he 
commanded a ship in the war with the pirates 
and the Mexican war. In 1852 he was given 
the command of a commodore and sent out with 
a fine squadron to Japan. He took with him a 
letter from the President to the Tycoon, or 
mihtary ruler, of Japan. 

On the 8th of July, 1853, the eyes of many 
of the Japanese opened wide when they saw 
four fine vessels sailing grandly up the broad 
Bay of Yeddo, where such a sight had never 
been seen before. As late as 1850 the ruler of 
Japan had sent word to foreign nations that 
he would have nothing to do with them or their 
people, and now here came these daring ships. 

These ships were the steam frigates Missis- 
sippi and Susquehanna, and the sailing ships 
Saratoga and Plymouth of the United States 
Navy, under command of Commodore Perry. 

Have you ever disturbed an ant-hill, and 
seen the ants come running out in great haste 
to learn what was wrong? It was much like 
that on the Bay of Yeddo. Thousands of 
Japanese gathered on the shores or rowed out 
on the bay tQ gaze at this strange sight. The 



224 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

great steamships, gliding on without sails, 
were a wonderful spectacle to them. 

As the ships came on, boats put out with 
flags and carrying men who wore two swords. 
This meant that they were of high station. 
They wanted to climb into the ships and order 
the daring commodore to turn around and go 
back, but none of them were allowed to set foot 
on board. 

"Our commodore Is a great dignitary," they 
were told. "He cannot meet small folk like 
you. He will only speak with one of your 
great men, who is his equal." 

And so the ropes which were fastened to the 
ships were cut, and those who tried to climb on 
board were driven back, and these two-sworded 
people had to row away as they had come. 

This made them think that the American 
commodore must be a very big man indeed. 
So a more important man came out ; but he was 
stopped too, and asked his business. He 
showed an order for the ships to leave the har- 
bor at once, but was told that they had come 
there on business and would not leave till their 
business was done. 

After some more talk they let this man come 



PERRY OPENS JAPAN 225 

on board, but a lieutenant was sent to talk with 
him as his equal in rank. He said he was the 
vice-governor of the district, and that the law 
of Japan forbade foreigners to come to any 
'port but that of Nagasaki, where the Dutch 
traders came. 

The lieutenant replied that such talk was not 
respectful; that they had come with a letter 
from the President of the United States to the 
Emperor of Japan ; and that they would deliver 
it where they were and nowhere else. And it 
would be given only to a prince of the highest 
rank. 

Then he was told that the armed boats that 
were gathering about the ship must go away. 
If they did not they would be driven away with 
cannon. When the vice-governor heard this 
he ordered the boats away, and soon followed 
them himself. He was told that if the gov- 
ernor did not receive the letter the ships would 
go up the bay to Yeddo, the capital, and send 
it up to the Emperor in his palace. 

The next day the governor of the district 
came. Two captains were sent to talk with 
him. He did not want to receive the letter 
either, and tried every way he could to avoid 

15 



226 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

taking it. After some talk he asked if he 
might have four days to send and get permis- 
sion of the Tycoon, who was the acting but not 
the real emperor of Japan. 

"No," he was told. "Three days will be 
plenty of time, for Yeddo is not far off. If the 
answer does not come then, we will steam up 
to the city, and our commodore will go to the 
Emperor's palace for the answer." 

The governor was frightened at this, so he 
agreed upon the three days and went ashore. 

During those three days the ships were not 
idle. They sent parties in boats to survey the 
bay. All along the shores were villages full 
of people, and fishing boats and trading vessels 
were on the waters by hundreds. There were 
forts on shore, but they were poor affairs, with 
a few little cannon, and soldiers carrying 
spears. And canvas was stretched from tree 
to tree as if it would keep back cannon-balls. 
The sailors laughed when they saw this. 

The governor said that they ought not to 
survey the waters; it was against the laws of 
Japan. But they kept at it all the same. The 
boats went ten miles up the bay, and the 
Mississippi steamed after them. Government 



PERRY OPENS JAPAN 227 

boats came out, and signs were made for them 
to go back; but they paid no attention to these 
signs. 

When the three days were ended the good 
news came that the Emperor would receive the 
letter. He would send one of his high officers 
for it. An answer would be returned through 
the Dutch or the Chinese. Commodore Perry 
said this was an insult, and he would not take 
an answer from them, but would come back 
for it himself. 

So, on the 14th of July the President's letter 
was received. It was written in the most beau- 
tiful manner, on the finest paper, and was in 
a golden box of a thousand dollars in value. 
It asked for a treaty of commerce between the 
two countries, and for kind treatment of Amer- 
ican sailors. 

So far none of the Japanese had seen the 
Commodore, and they thought he must be a 
very great man. Now he went ashore with 
much dignity, with several hundred officers and 
men, and with bands playing and cannon roar- 
ing. There were two princes of the empire to 
receive him, splendidly dressed in embroidered 
robes of silk. 



2 28 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

The Commodore was carried in a fine sedan- 
chair, beside which walked two gigantic ne- 
groes, dressed in gorgeous uniform and armed 
with swords and pistols. Two other large, 
handsome negroes carried the golden letter 
case. 

A beautiful scarlet box was brought by the 
Japanese to receive this. It was put in the box 
with much ceremony, and a receipt was given. 
Then the interpreter said: 

"Nothing more can be done now. The letter 
has been received and you must leave." 

*T shall come back for the answer," said 
Commodore Perry. 

"With all the ships?" 

"Yes, and likely with more." 

Not another word was said, and the Com- 
modore rose and returned to the ship. The 
next day he sailed up the bay until only eight 
or ten miles from the capital. On the i6th, the 
Japanese officials were glad to see the foreign 
ships, with their proud Commodore, sailing 
away. The visit had caused them great anx- 
iety and trouble of mind. 

Commodore Perry did not come back till 
February of the next year. Then he had a 



PERRY OPENS JAPAN 229 

larger fleet; nine ships in all. And he went 
farther up the bay than before and anchored 
opposite the village of Yokohama. This vil- 
lage has now grown into a large city. 

The Emperor's answer was ready, but there 
was much ceremony before it was delivered. 
There were several receptions, and at one of 
these the presents which Commodore Perry 
had brought were delivered. These were fine 
cloths, firearms, plows, and various other ar- 
ticles. The most valuable were a small locomo- 
tive and a railroad car. These were run in a 
circular track that was set up, and the Japanese 
looked on with wonder. Also a telegraph wire 
was set up and operated. This interested the 
Japanese more than anything else, but they 
took care not to show any surprise. 

In the Emperor's reply, he agreed that the 
American ships should be supplied with pro- 
visions and water, and that shipwrecked sailors 
should be kindly treated. And he also agreed 
to open to American ships another port besides 
that of Nagasaki, where the Dutch were re- 
ceived. The Commodore was not satisfied with 
this, and finally two new ports were opened to 
American commerce. And the Americans were 



230 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

given much more freedom to go about than was 
given to the Dutch or the Chinese. They 
refused to be treated hke slaves. 

When it was all settled and the treaties were 
exchanged, Commodore Perry gave an elegant 
dinner on his flagship to the Japanese princes 
and officials. They enjoyed the American food 
greatly, but what they liked most was cham- 
pagne wine, which they had never tasted be- 
fore. One little Japanese got so merry with 
drinking this, that he sprang up and embraced 
the Commodore like a brother. Perry bore 
this with great good-humor. 

But just think of the importance of all this ! 
For three centuries the empire of Japan had 
been shut like a locked box against the nations. 
Now the box was unlocked, and the people of 
the nations were free to come and go. For 
treaties were soon made with other countries, 
and the island empire was thrown open to the 
commerce of the world. 



CHAPTER XXI 

CAPTAIN INGRAHAM TEACHES AUS- 
TRIA A LESSON 



Our Navy Upholds the Rights of an Amer- 
ican IN A Foreign Land 

NOW I have a story to tell you about how 
this country looks after its citizens 
abroad. It is not a long story, but it is a 
good one, and Americans have been proud of 
Captain Ingraham ever since his gallant act. 

In 1848 there was a great rebellion in Hun- 
gary against Austria. Some terrible fighting 
took place and then it was put down with much 
cruelty and slaughter. The Austrian govern- 
ment tried to seize all the leaders of the Hun- 
garian patriots and put them to death, but 
several of them escaped to Turkey and took 
refuge in the City of Smyrna. Among these 
was the celebrated Louis Kossuth, and another 
man named Koszta. 

Austria asked Turkey to give these men up, 

(231) 



2 32 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

but the Sultan of Turkey refused to do so. 
Soon after that Koszta came to the United 
States, and there in 1852 he took the first step 
towards becoming an American citizen. He 
was sure that the United States would take 
care of its citizens. And he found out that it 
would. 

The next year he had to go back to Smyrna 
on some business. That was not a safe place 
for him. The Austrians hated him as they did 
all the Hungarian patriots. They did not ask 
Turkey again to give him up, but there was an 
Austrian warship, the Hitszar, in the harbor, 
and a plot was made to seize Koszta and take 
him on board this ship. Then he could easily 
be carried to Austria and put to death as a 
rebel. 

One day, while Koszta was sitting quietly in 
the Marina, a public place in Smyrna, he was 
seized by a number of Greeks, who had been 
hired to do so by the Austrian consul. They 
bound him with ropes and carried him on board 
the Hussar. 

It looked bad now for poor Koszta, for he 
was in the hands of his enemies. It is said 
that the Archduke John, brother of the Em- 



INGRAHAM TEACHES AUSTRIA 233 

peror of Austria, was captain of the ship. By 
his orders iron fetters were riveted on the 
ankles and wrists of Koszta, and he was locked 
up in the ship as one who had committed a 
great crime. 

But a piece of great good fortune for the 
prisoner happened, for the next day the St. 
Louis, an American sloop-of-war, came sailing 
into the harbor. Captain Duncan N. Ingra- 
ham, who had been a midshipman in the War 
of 1812, was in command. 

He was just the man to be there. He was 
soon told what had taken place, and that the 
prisoner claimed to be an American, and he at 
once sent an officer to the Huszar and asked if 
he could see Koszta. He was told that he 
might do so. 

Captain Ingraham went to the Austrian ship 
and had an interview with the prisoner, who 
told him his story, and said that he had taken 
the first step to become a citizen of the United 
States. He begged the captain to protect him. 

Captain Ingraham was satisfied that Koszta 
had a just claim to the protection of the Amer- 
ican flag, and asked the Austrlans to release 
him. They refused to do so, and he then wrote 



234 OUR NAVAL HEREOS 

to Mr. Brown, the American consul at Con- 
stantinople and asked him what he should do. 

Before he could get an answer a squadron 
of Austrian warships, six in number, came 
gliding into the harbor, and dropped anchor 
near the Hiiszar. It looked worse than ever 
now for poor Koszta, for what could the little 
St. Louis do against seven big ships? But 
Captain Ingraham did not let that trouble him. 
In his mind right was stronger than might, and 
he was ready to fight ten to one for the honor 
of his flag. 

While he was waiting for an answer from 
Consul Brown he saw that the Huszar was 
getting ready to leave the harbor. Her anchor 
was drawn up and her sails were set. Ingra- 
ham made up his mind that if the Hussar left, 
it would have to be over the wreck of the St. 
Louis. He spread his sails in a hurry and 
drove his sloop-of-war right in the track of the 
Austrian ship. Then he gave orders to his 
men to make ready for a fight. 

When Archduke John saw the gun-ports of 
the St. Louis open he brought his ship to a 
standstill and Captain Ingraham went on 
board. 



INGRAHAM TEACHES AUSTRIA 235 

"What do you intend to do?" he asked. 

''To sail for home," said the Austrian. 
"Our consul orders us to take our prisoner to 
Austria." 

"You must pardon me," said Captain In- 
graham, "but if you try to leave this port with 
that American I shall be compelled to resort to 
extreme measures." 

That was a polite way of saying that Koszta 
should not be taken away if he could pre- 
vent it. 

The Austrian looked at the six ships of his 
nation that lay near him. Then he looked at 
the one American ship. Then a pleasant smile 
came on his face. 

"I fear I shall have to go on, whether it is 
to your liking or not," he said, in a very polite 
tone. 

Captain Ingraham made no answer. He 
bowed to the Archduke and then descended 
into his boat and returned to the St. Louis. 

"Clear the ship for action !" he ordered. The 
tars sprang to their stations, the ports were 
opened, and the guns thrust out. There was 
many a grim face behind them. 

The Archduke stared when he saw these 



236 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

black-mouthed guns. He was in the wrong 
and he knew it. And he saw that the Amer- 
ican meant business. He could soon settle the 
little St. Louis with his seven ships. But the 
great United States was behind that one ship, 
and war might be behind all that. 

So the Archduke took the wisest course, 
turned his ship about, and sailed back. Then 
he sent word to Ingraham that he would wait 
till Consul Brown's answer came. 

The Consul's reply came on July i. It 
said that Captain Ingraham had done just 
right, and advised him to go on and stand for 
the honor of his country. 

The daring American now took a bold step. 
He sent a note to the Archduke, demanding the 
release of Koszta. And he said that if the 
prisoner was not sent on board the St. Louis 
by four o'clock the next afternoon, he would 
take him from the Austrians by force of arms. 

A refusal came back from the Austrian ship. 
They would not give up their prisoner, they 
said. Now it looked like war indeed. Captain 
Ingraham waited till eight o'clock the next 
morning, and then he had his decks cleared for 
action and brought his guns to bear on the 



INGRAHAM TEACHES AUSTRIA 237 

Hussar. The seven Austrian ships turned 
their guns on the St. Louis. The train was 
laid ; a spark might set it off. 

At ten o'clock an Austrian officer came on 
board the St. Louis. He began to talk round 
the subject. Ingraham would not listen to him. 
It must be one thing or nothing. 

"All I will agree to is to have the man given 
into the care of the French consul at Smyrna 
till you can hear from your government," he 
said. "But he must be delivered there or I 
will take him. I have stated the time at four 
o'clock this afternoon." 

The Austrian went back. When twelve 
o'clock came a boat left the Hussar and was 
rowed in shore. An hour later the French 
consul sent word to Captain Ingraham that 
Koszta had been put under his charge. Cap- 
tain Ingraham had won. Soon after, several 
of the Austrian ships got under way and left 
the harbor. They had tried to scare Captain 
Ingraham by a show of force, but they had 
tried in vain. 

When news of the event reached the United 
States everybody cheered the spirit of Captain 
Ingraham. He had given Europe a new idea 



2.:;S OUR NAVAL HEROES 



■0 



of what the rights of an American citizen 
meant. The diplomats now took up the case 
and long- letters passed between \'ienna and 
\\'ashington. But in the end Austria acknowl- 
edged that the United States was right, and 
sent an apology. 

As for Koszta, the American flag gave him 
life and liberty. Since then American citizen- 
ship has been respected everywhere. 



CHAPTER XXII 

THE "MONITOR" AND THE "MER- 
RIMAC" 



A Fight Which Changed All Naval 
Warfare. 



T 



HE story I am now going to tell you 
takes us forward to the beginning of the 
great Civil War, that terrible conflict 
which went on during four long years between 
the people of the North and the South. Most 
of this war was on land, but there were some 
mighty battles at sea, and my story is of one 
of the greatest of these. 

You should know that up to i860 all ocean 
battles were fought by ships with wooden sides, 
through which a ball from a great gun would 
often cut as easily as a knife through a piece 
of cheese. Some vessels had been built with 
iron overcoats, but none of these had met in 
war. It was not till March, 1862, that the first 
battle between ships with iron sides took place, 

(239) 



240 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

The Constitution, you may remember, was 
called the Old Ironsides, but that was only a 
nickname, for she had wooden sides, and the 
first real Ironsides were the Monitor and the 
Merrimac. 

Down in Virginia there is a great body of 
salt water known as Hampton Roads. The 
James River runs into it, and so does the Eliza- 
beth River, a small stream which flows pas{ 
the old City of Norfolk. 

When the Civil War opened there was at 
Norfolk a fine United States navy yard, with 
ships and guns and docks that had cost a great 
deal of money. But soon after the war began 
the United States officers in charge there ran 
away in a fright, having first set on fire every- 
thing that would burn. Among the ships 
there was the old frigate Merrimac, which was 
being repaired. This was set on fire, and 
blazed away brightly until it sank to the bot- 
tom and the salt water put out the blaze. That 
was a very bad business, for there was enough 
left of the old Merrimac to make a great deal 
of trouble for the United States. 

What did the Confederates do but lift the 
Merrimac out of the mud, and put her in the 



"MONITOR" AND "MERRIMAC" 241 

dry dock, and cut away the burnt part, and 
build over her a sloping roof of timbers two 
feet thick, until she looked something like 
Noah's ark. Then this was covered with iron 
plates four inches thick. In that way the first 
Confederate iron-clad ship was made. 

The people at Washington knew all about 
this ship and were very much alarmed. No one 
could tell what dreadful damage it might do if 
it got out to sea, and came up Chesapeake Bay 
and the Potomac River to the national capital. 
It might be much worse than when the British 
burnt Washington in 1814, for Washington 
was now a larger and finer city. 

Something had to be done, and right away, 
too. It would not do to wait for a monster 
like the^Merrimac. So Captain John Ericsson, 
a famous engineer of New York, was ordered 
to build an iron ship-of-war as fast as he could. 
And he started to do so after a queer notion 
of his own. 

That is the way it came about that the two 
iron ships were being built at once, one at Nor- 
folk and one at New York. And there was a 
race between the builders, for the first one fin- 
ished would have the best chance. There was a 

16 



242 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

lively rattle of hammers and tongs at both 
places, and it turned out that they were finished 
and ready for service only a few days apart. 

It was necesary to tell you all this so that 
you might know how the great fight came to be 
fought, and how Washington was saved from 
the iron dragon of the South. Now we are 
done with our story of ship-building and must 
go on to the story of battle and ruin. 

On the morning of IMarcli 8, i86j, the sun 
came up beautifully over the broad waters of 
Hampton Roads. The bright sunbeams lit up 
the sails of a row of stately vessels stretched 
out for miles over the smiling bay. There were 
five of these: the steam frigates St, Lawroicc, 
^RoanokCy and MvDicsota; the sailing frigate 
Co)ig?'css: and the sloop-of-war Ctunbcrhvid. 
They were all wooden ships, but were some of 
the best men-of-war in the United States navy. 

All was still and quiet that fine morning. 
There was nothing to show that there was any 
trouble on board those noble ships. But there 
was alarm enough, for their captains knew 
that the Mcrrimac was finished and might 
come at any hour. Yovy likely some of the 
officers thought that they could soon decide 



"MONITOR" AND "MERRIMAC" 243 

matters for this clumsy iron monster. But I 
fancy some of them did not sleep well and had 
had dreams when they thought of what might 
happen. 

Just at the hour of noon the lookout on the 
Cumberland saw a long hlack line of smoke 
coming from the way of Norfolk. Soon three 
steamers were seen. One of these did not look 
like a ship at all, but like a low black box, 
from which the smoke puffed up in a thick 
cloud. 

But they knew very w^ell what this odd- 
looking craft was. It was the Mcrntnac. It 
had come out for a trial trip. But it was a new 
kind of trial its men were after: the trial by 
battle. 

Down came the iron-clad ship, with her 
sloping roof black in the sunlight. Past the 
Congress she went, both ships firing. But the 
great guns of the Congress did no more harm 
than so many pea-shooters; while the shot of 
the Merrhnac went clear through the wooden 
ships, leaving death in their track. 

Then the iron monster headed for the Cum- 
berland. That was a terrible hour for the men 
on the neat little sloop-of-war. They worked 



244 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

for their lives, loading and firing, and firing as 
fast as they could, but not a shot went through 
that g^rim iron wall. 

In a few minutes the Merrimac came gliding 
up and struck the Cumberland a frightful blow 
with her iron nose, tearing through the thick 
oaken timbers and making a great hole in her 
side. Then she backed off and the water 
rushed in. 

In a minute the good ship began to sink, 
while the Merrimac poured shot and shell into 
her wounded ribs. 

"Do you surrender?" asked one of the offi- 
cers of the Merrimac. 

"Never!" said Lieutenant Morris, who com- 
manded the Cumberland. "I'll sink alongside 
before I pull down that flag." 

He was a true Yankee seaman; one of the 
"no surrender" kind. 

Down, inch by inch; settled the doomed ship. 
But her men stuck grimly to their guns, and 
fired their last shot just as she sank out of 
sight. Then all who had not saved themselves 
in the boats leaped overboard and swam ashore, 
but a great many of the dead and wounded 
went down with the ship. 



"MONITOR" AND "MERRIMAC" 245 

She sank like a true Yankee hero, with her 
flag flying, and when she struck bottom, with 
only the tops of her masts above water, ^'Old 
Glory" still fluttered proudly in the breeze. 

That was the way it went when iron first 
met wood in naval warfare. The victor now 
turned to the Congress and another fierce bat- 
tle began. But the wooden ship had no chance. 
For an hour her men fought bravely, but her 
great guns were of no use, and a white flag was 
raised. She had surrendered, but the Confed- 
erates could not take possession, for there were 
batteries on shore that drove them ofl^. So 
they fired hot shot into the Congress and soon 
she was in a blaze. - 

It was now five o'clock in the afternoon, and 
the Merrimac steamed away with the Confed- 
erate flag flying in triumph. She had finished 
her work for that day. It was a famous trial 
trip. She would come back the next and sink 
the vessels still afloat — if nothing hindered. 

For hours that night the Congress blazed 
like a mighty torch, the flames lighting up the 
water and land for miles around. It was after 
midnight when the fire reached her magazine 
and she blew up with a terrific noise, scatter- 



246 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

ing her timbers far and near. The men on the 
Merrimac looked proudly at the burning ship. 
It was a great triumph for them. But they 
saw one thing by her light they did not like so 
well. Off towards Fortress Monroe there lay 
in the water a strange-looking thing, which 
had not been there an hour before. What 
queer low ship was that? And where had it 
come from? 

The sun rose on the morning of Sunday, 
March 9, and an hour later the Merrimac was 
again under way* to finish her work. Not far 
from where the Congress had burnt lay the 
Minnesota. She had run aground and looked 
like an easy prey. But close beside her was the 
floating thing they had observed the night be- 
fore, the queerest-looking craft that had ever 
been seen. 

Everybody opened their eyes wide and stared 
as at a show when they saw this strange object. 
They called it "a cheese box on a raft," and 
that was a good name for its queer appearance. 
For the deck was nearly on a level with the 
water, and over its centre rose something like 
a round iron box. But it had two great guns 
sticking out of its tough sides. 



"MONITOR" AND "MERRIMAC" 247 

It was the Monitor, the new vessel which 
Captain Ericsson had buih and sent down to 
fight the Merrimac. But none who saw this 
httle low thing thought it could stand long be- 
fore the great Confederate iron-clad. It looked 
a little like a slim tiger or leopard before a 
great rhinoceros or elephant. The men on the 
Merrimac did not seem to think it worth mind- 
ing, for they came steaming up and began 
firing at the Minnesota when they were a mile 
away. 

Then away from the side of the great fri- 
gate glided the little Monitor, heading straight 
for her clumsy antagonist. She looked like no 
more than a mouthful for the big ship, and 
men gazed at her with dread. She seemed 
to be going straight to destruction. 

But the brave fellows on the Monitor had 
no such thoughts as that. 

**Let her have it," said Captain Worden, 
when they came near; and one of the great 
eleven-inch guns boomed like a volcano. The 
huge iron ball, weighing about 175 pounds, 
struck the plates of the Merrimac with a thun- 
dering crash, splitting and splintering them 
before it bounded ofi. The broadside of the 



248 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

Merrimac boomed back, but the balls glanced 
away from the thick round sides of the turret 
and did not harm. 

Then the turret was whirled round like a 
top, and the gun on the other side came round 
and was fired. Again the Merrimac fired back, 
and the great battle was on. 

For two hours the iron ships fought like two 
mighty wrestlers of the seas. Smoke filled the 
turret so that the men of the Monitor did not 
know how to aim their guns. The Merrimac 
could fire three times to her one, but not a ball 
took efifect. It was like a battle in a cloud. 

"Why are you not firing?" asked Lieutenant 
Jones of a gun captain. 

**Why, powder is getting scarce," he replied, 
"and I find I can do that whififet as much harm 
by snapping my finger and thumb every three 
minutes." 

Then Lieutenant Jones tried to sink the 
Monitor. Five times the great iron monster 
came rushing up upon the little Yankee craft, 
but each time it glided easily away. But when 
the Merrimac came up the sixth time Captain 
Worden did not try to escape. The Monitor 
waited for the blow. Up rushed the Merrimac 



"MONITOR" AND "MERRIMAC" 249 

at full speed and struck her a fierce blow. But 
the iron armor did not give way, and the great 
ship rode up on the little one's deck till she 
was lifted several feet. 

The little Monitor sank down under the Mer~ 
rimac till the water washed across her deck; 
then she slid lightly out and rose up all right 
again, while the Merrimac started a leak in its 
own bow. At the same moment one of the 
Monitor's great guns was fired and the ball 
struck the Merrimac, breaking the iron plates 
and bulging in the thick wood backing. 

Thus for hour after hour the fight went on. 
For six hours the iron ships- struggled and 
fought, but neither ship was much the worse, 
while nobody was badly hurt. 

The end of the fight came in this way : There 
was a little pilot-house on the deck of the 
Monitor, with a slot in its side from which Cap- 
tain Worden watched what was going on, so 
that he could give orders to his men. Up 
against this there came a shell that filled the 
face and eyes of the captain with grains of 
powder and splinters of iron, and flung him 
down blind and helpless. Blood poured from 
every pore of his face. 



250 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

The same shot knocked an iron plate from 
the top of the pilot-house and let in the day- 
light in a flood. When the light came pouring 
in Captain Worden, with his blinded eyes, 
thought something very serious had happened, 
and gave orders for the Monitor to draw off to 
see what damage was done. 

Before she came back the Merrimac was far 
away. She was leaking badly and her officers 
thought it about time to steam away for home. 

That was the end of the great battle. 
Neither side had won the victory, but it was a 
famous fight for all that. For it was the first 
battle of iron-clad ships in the history of the 
world. Since then no great warship has been 
built without iron sides. Only small vessels 
are now made all of wood. 

That was the first and last battle of the 
Monitor and the Merrimac. For a long time 
they watched each other like two bull-dogs 
ready for a fight. But neither came to blows. 
Then, two months after the great battle, the 
Merrimac was set on fire and blown up. The 
Union forces were getting near Norfolk and 
her officers were afraid she would be taken, so 
they did what the Union officers had done 
before. 



"MONITOR" AND "MERRIMAC" 251 

The Monitor had done her work well, but 
her time also soon came. Ten months after 
the great battle she was sent out to sea, and 
there she went to the bottom in a gale. Such 
was the fate of the pioneer iron-clads. But 
they had fought a mighty fight, and had taught 
the nations of the world a lesson they would 
not soon forget. 

In that grim deed between the first two iron- 
clad ships a revolution took place in naval war. 
The great frigates, with their long rows of 
guns, were soon to be of little more use than 
floating logs. More than forty years have 
passed since then, and now all the great war- 
vessels are clad in armor of the hardest steel. 



CHAPTER XXIII 

COMMODORE FARRAGUT WINS 
RENOWN 



The Hero of Mobile Bay Lashes Himself 
TO THE Mast 

AN old friend of ours is David G. Farragut. 
We met him, you may remember, years 
ago, on the old Essex, under Captain 
Porter, when he was a boy of only about ten 
years of age. Young as he was, he did good 
work on that fine ship during her cruise in the 
Pacific and her last great fight. 

When the Civil War began Farragut had 
got to be quite an old boy. He was sixty years 
of age and a captain in the navy. He had 
been born in the South and now lived in Vir- 
ginia, and the Confederates very much wanted 
him to fight on their side. 

"Not after fighting fifty years for the old 
flag," he said. "And mind what I tell you; 
you fellows will catch much more than you 

(252) 



COMMODORE FARRAGUT 253 

want before you get through with this busi- 
ness." 

And so Farragut reported for duty under 
the old flag. 

Very soon the ships of the government were 
busy all along the coast, blockading ports and 
chasing blockade runners, and fighting wher- 
ever they saw a chance. 

One such chance, a big one, came away down 
South. For there was the large City of New 
Orleans, which the British had tried to take 
nearly fifty years before; and there was the 
Mississippi River that led straight to it. But 
strong forts had been built along that river 
and armed boats were on its waters, and the 
Yankees of the North might find it as hard to 
get there as the British did. 

Now I have to speak of another brave man 
and good seaman, David D. Porter. He was 
a son of the captain of the old Essex, and a life- 
long friend of David G. Farragut. 

Porter was sent down to help blockade the 
Mississippi in the summer of 1861, and while 
there he found out all about the forts and the 
ships on the river. Then he went to Washing- 
ton and told the Secretary of the Navy all he 



254 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

had learned, and asked him to send down a 
fleet to try to capture the city. 

"Where can I find the right man for a big 
job hke that?" asked the Secretary. 

"Captain Farragut is your man," said Por- 
ter. "You have him now on committee work, 
where a man hke him is just wasted, for you 
have not half as good a seaman on any of your 
ships." 

And in that way the gallant Farragut was 
chosen to command the fleet to be sent to cap- 
ture the great city of the South. Porter, you 
see, did not ask for a command for himself, but 
for his friend. 

When the fleet was got ready it numbered 
nearly twenty vessels, but most of them were 
gunboats, and none of them were very large. 
The Mississippi was not the place for very 
large ships. Farragut chose the sloop-of-war 
Hartford for his flagship and sailed merrily 
away for the mighty river. He did not forget 
his friend Porter. For twenty mortar boats 
were added to the fleet, and Porter was given 
command of these. 

A mortar, you should know, is a kind of a 
short cannon made to throw large shells or 



COMMODORE FARRAGUT 255 

balls. It is pointed upward so as to throw them 
high up into the air and then let them fall 
straight down on a fort. Porter's mortar boats 
were schooners that carried cannons of this 
kind. 

When Farragut had sailed his fleet into the 
river, he made ready for the great fight before 
him. Of course, he had no iron-clads, for the 
Monitor had just fought its great battle and 
no other iron-clads had been built. So he 
stretched iron chains up and down the sides of 
his ships to stop cannon balls. Then bags of 
coal and sand were piled round the boilers and 
engines to keep them safe, and nets were Hung 
to catch flying splinters, which, in a fight at 
sea, are often worse than bullets. 

But the most interesting thing done was to 
the mortar boats. These were to be anchored 
down the stream below the forts, and limbs of 
trees full of green leaves were tied on their 
masts, so they could not be told from the trees 
on the river-bank. As they went up the river 
they looked like a green grove afloat. 

Now let us take a look at what the Confed- 
erates were doing. They were not asleep, you 
may be sure. They had built two strong forts, 



256 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

one «Dn each side of the river, just where 
it made a sharp bend. One of these was 
named Fort Jackson and the other Fort St. 
PhiHp. There were more than a hundred 
cannon in these forts, but most of them were 
small ones. 

They had also stretched iron cables across 
the river, with rafts and small vessels to hold 
them up. These were to stop the fleet from 
going up the river, and to hold it fast while the 
forts could pour shot and shell into it. They 
had also many steamboats with cannon on 
them. One of these, the Louisiana, was cov- 
ered with iron. Another was a ram, called the 
Manassas. This had a sharp iron beak, to ram 
and sink other vessels. And there were great 
coal barges, filled with fat pine knots. These 
were meant for fire-ships. You will learn far- 
ther on how these were to be used. 

You may see from this that Farragut had 
some hard work before him. Even if he got 
past the chains and the forts, all his ships 
might be set on fire by the fire-ships. But the 
bold captain was not one of the kind that 
mind things like that. Now let us go on to 
the story of the terrible river fight, which has 



COMMODORE FARRAGUT 257 

long been one of the most famous battles of 
the war. 

Porter's mortar boats were anchored under 
the trees on the river-bank, two miles below 
the forts. With their green-clad masts they 
looked like trees themselves. At ten o'clock in 
the -morning of April 18, 1862, the first mortar 
sent its big shell whizzing through the air. 
And for six days this was kept up, each of the 
mortars booming out once every ten minutes. 
That made one shot for every half-minute. 

Two days after the mortars began, a bold 
thing was done. The gunboat Itasca set out in 
the darkness of the night and managed to get 
between the shore and the chain. Then it ran 
up stream above the chain till it got a good 
headway. It now turned round and came down 
at full speed before the strong current. 

Fort Jackson was firing, and balls were rat- 
tling all about the bold Itasca, but she rushed 
on through them all. Plump against the chain 
she came, with a thud that lifted her three feet 
out of the water. Then the chain snapped in 
two and away went the Itasca down stream. 
The barrier was broken and the way to New 
Orleans lay open before the fleet. 

17 



258 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

On the 23d of April Farragut gave his or- 
ders to the captains of the fleet. That night 
they were to try to pass the forts and fig'ht 
their way to New Orleans. At two o'clock in 
the morning came the welcome order, "All 
hands up anchor !" and at three o'clock all was 
ready for the start. 

The night was dark, but on the banks near 
Fort Jackson there was a blazing wood fire, 
that threw its light across the stream. And 
Porter's bombs were being fired as fast as the 
men could drop the balls into them, so that 
there was a great arch of fiery shells between 
the mortar boats and the forts. 

The gunboat Cayuga led the way through 
the broken barrier. After her came the Pensa- 
cola, one of the large vessels. All this time 
the forts had kept still, but now they blazed 
out with all their guns, and the air was full of 
the booming of cannon and the screeching of 
shells from forts and ships. 

Great piles of wood were kindled on the 
banks, and the fire-ships up stream were sent 
blazing down the river as the steam vessels 
came rushing up into the fire of the forts. 
Never had the Mississippi seen so terrible a 



COMMODORE FARRAGUT 259 

night. The blazing wood and flashing guns 
made it as hght as day, and the roar was Hke 
ten thunderstorms. 

Soon the Hartford came on, with Farragut 
on her deck. So thick was the smoke that she 
ran aground, and before she could get off a 
fire-ship came blazing down against her side, 
pushed by a tug-boat straight on to her. In a 
minute the paint on the ship's side was in a 
blaze and the flames shot up half as high as 
the masts. The men at the guns drew back 
from the scorching heat. 

"Don't flinch from that blaze, boys," cried 
Farragut. "Those who don't do their duty 
here will find a hotter fire than that." 

For a brief time the good ship was in great 
danger. But a shower of shells sent the dar- 
ing tug-boat to the bottom, and the fire-ship 
floated away. Then a hose-pipe spurted water 
on the flames. The fire was put out and the 
Hartford was saved. 

That was only the beginning of the great 
battle. From that time on, fire and flame, 
boom and roar, death and destruction, were 
everywhere. The great shells from the mor- 
tars dropped bursting into the forts. The huge 



2 6o OUR NAVAL HEROES 

wood piles blazed high on the banks. Ships 
and forts hurled a frightful shower of shells 
at each other. Blazing fire-ships came drifting 
down. The foremost boats were fiercely fight- 
ing with the Confederate craft. The hindmost 
boats were fighting with the forts. The up- 
roar seemed enough to drive the very moon 
from the sky. 

But soon victory began to hold out her hand 
to the Union fleet. For all the ships passed 
the forts, some of the Confederate vessels were 
driven ashore and others fled up stream ; and in 
a little while only three of them were left, and 
these were kept safe under the guns of the 
fort. The battle had been fought and won, 
and the triumphant fleet steamed up the river 
to New Orleans. The forts were still there, 
but what could they do, with Union forces 
above and below? Four days after the fight 
they were surrendered to Porter and his mor- 
tar fleet. 

There was one final act to the great Missis- 
sippi battle. For as Commander Porter, in his 
flagship, lay near Fort Jackson, down on him 
came the Iron-clad Louisiana, all in a blaze. 
But just before she reached his vessel she blew 



COMMODORE FARRAGUT 261 

up; and that was the end of the Louisiana and 
the fight. The river was open and New Or- 
leans was captured. Thus ended the greatest 
naval battle of the Civil War. 

Two years and more afterward Farragut 
fought another great battle. This was in the 
Bay of Mobile, then a great place for blockade- 
runners. These were swift vessels that 
brought goods from Europe to the South. The 
Union fleet did all it could to stop them, but 
they could not be stopped at Mobile from out- 
side, so Farragut was told to fight his way 
inside the bay. And that is what he did. 

Mobile Bay is like a great bell, thirty miles 
long and fifteen miles wide. There are two 
islands at the mouth, so that the entrance is 
not more than a mile wide. And on each of 
these islands was a strong fort, which had 
been built by the government before the war. 
The Confederates had taken possession of 
these forts and had big guns in them. 

The first thing to do was to pass the forts. 
No chain could be put across the channel here, 
but there was something worse, for nearly two 
hundred torpedos were planted in the water 
near the forts. Some of these were made of 



262 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

beer-kegs and some of tin; and they were 
planted so thickly that it was not easy to get 
in without setting them off. Then, when the 
fort and the torpedoes were passed, there were 
the ships. Three of these were small gunboats, 
of not much account. But there was a great 
iron-clad ship, the Tennessee, which was twice 
as strong as the Merrimac. It was covered 
with iron five or six inches thick, and carried a 
half-dozen big guns. 

Franklin Buchanan, who had been captain 
of the Merrimac, was admiral of the Tennes- 
see. 

But Admiral Farragut — he was an admiral 
now — had his iron-clad vessels, too. Four mon- 
itors like the old Monitor of Hampton Roads, 
had been built and sent him, and these, with 
his wooden vessels, made nearly twenty ships. 

Such was the fleet with which Farragut set 
out for his second great victory, early in the 
morning of August 5, 1864. It was six o'clock 
when the ships crossed the bar and headed in 
for Fort Morgan. 

On they went, bravely, firing at the fort. 
But not a shot came back till the leading ships 
were in front of its strong stone walls. Then 



COMMODORE FARRAGUT 263 

there began a terrible roar, and a storm of iron 
balls poured out at the ships. If the guns had 
been well aimed, dreadful work might have 
been done, but the balls went screaming 
through the air and hardly touched a ship. 
And the fierce fire from the ships drove many 
of the men in the fort from their guns. 

But now there is a terrible tale to tell, a tale 
of death and destruction, of the sinking of a 
ship with her captain and nearly all her crew 
on board. 

This was the monitor Tecumseh. It was 
steered straight out where the torpedoes lay 
thick. Suddenly there came a dull roar. The 
bow of the iron-clad was lifted like a feather 
out of the water. Then it sank till it pointed 
downward like a boy diving, and the stern was 
lifted up into the air. In a second more the 
good ship went down with a mighty plunge. 

But with this there is also one fine story, the 
story of a gallant man. This was Captain 
Craven, of the Tecumseh. He and the pilot 
were in the pilot-house and both sprang for 
the opening. But there was room only for one. 
The brave captain drew back. 

"After you, pilot," he said. 



2 64 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

The pilot escaped, but the noble captain, 
with ninety-two of his men, sank to the depths. 

A boat was sent to pick up the swimmers, 
with a gallant young ensign, H. C. Neilds, in 
charge. Out they rowed where the waters 
were being torn and threshed with shot and 
shell. The ensign was only a boy, but he had 
the spirit of a Perry. He saw that his flag 
was not flying, and he coolly raised it in the 
face of the foe, and then sat down to steer. 

Brave men were there by the hundreds, but 
none were braver than their admiral, their im- 
mortal Farragut. The smoke blinded his eyes 
on deck, so he climbed to the top of the main- 
mast, and there, lashed to the rigging, he went 
in through the thick of the fire. Shells 
screeched past him, great iron balls hustled 
by his ears, but not a quiver came over his 
noble face. He had to be where he could 
see, he said. Danger did not count where 
duty called. 

On past the forts went ships and monitors, 
heedless of torpedoes or of the fate of the Te- 
ciimseh. Only one captain showed the white 
feather. The Brooklyn held back. 

"What is the matter ?" screamed Farragut. 



COMMODORE FARRAGUT 265 

"Torpedoes," was the only word that reached 
his ears. 

The gallant admiral then used a strong 
word. It was not a word to be used in polite 
society. But we must remember that battle 
was raging about him and he was in a fury. 

"Damn the torpedoes!" he cried. "Follow 
me!" 

Straight on the good ship sailed, right for 
the nest of torpedoes, with the admiral in the 
shrouds. 

In a minute more the Hartford was among 
them. They could be heard striking against 
her bottom. Their percussion caps snapped, 
but not one went off. Their tin cases had 
rusted and they were spoiled. Only one of 
them all went off that dreadful day of battle. 
That saved many of the ships. 

The fort and the torpedoes were passed, but 
the Confederate ships remained. It did not 
take long to settle for the gunboats, but the 
iron-clad Tennessee remained. Putting on all 
steam, this great ship ran down on the Union 
fleet. Through the whole line it went and on 
to the fort. But it was as slow as a tub and 
the ships were easily kept out of its way. 



266 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

Then, when the men were at breakfast, back 
again came the Tennessee. They left their 
coffee and ran to their guns. It was Hke the 
old story of the Mcrriniac and the wooden 
ships in Hampton Roads. 

But Farragut did not wait to be rammed by 
the Tennessee. If ramming was to be done he 
wanted to do it himself. So all the large ves- 
sels steamed head on for the iron-clad, butting 
her right and left. They hit one another, too, 
and the Hartford came near being sunk. Then 
came the monitors, as the first Monitor had 
come against the Merrimac. There were three 
of these left, but one did the work, the Chicka- 
sazv. She clung like a burr to the Tennessee, 
pouring in her great iron balls, and doing so 
much damage that soon the great ship was like 
a floating hulk. It could not be steered nor its 
guns fired. 

For twenty minutes it stood this dreadful 
hammering, and then its flag came down. The 
battle was won. 

"It was the most desperate battle 1 ever 
fought since the days of the old Essex" said 
Farragut. 

The figure of the brave admiral in the rig- 



COMMODORE FARRAGUT 267 

ging, fighting his ship amid a cyclone of shot 
and shell, made him the hero of the American 
people. It was like Dewey on the bridge in 
Manila Bay in a later war. There was no 
rank high enough in the navy to fit the glory 
he had won, so one was made for him, the rank 
of admiral. There was rear-admiral and vice- 
admiral, but admiral was new and higher still. 
Only two men have held this rank since his' 
day, his good friend and comrade, David D. 
Porter, and the brave George Dewey. 



CHAPTER XXIV 

A RIVER FLEET IN A HAIL OF FIRE 



Admiral Porter Runs by the Forts in a 
Novel Way 

OF course you know what a tremendous 
task the North had before it in the Civil 
War. The war between the North and 
the South was hke a battle of giants. And in 
this vast contest the navy had to do its share, 
both out at sea and on the rivers of the country. 
One of its big bits of work was to cut off the 
left arm of the Confederacy, and leave it only 
its right arm to fight with. 

By the left arm I mean the three states west 
of the Mississippi River, and by the right arm, 
the eight states east of that great river. To 
cut off this left arm the government had to get 
control of the whole river, from St. Louis to 
the Gulf, so that no Confederate troops could 
cross the great stream. 

You have read how Farragut and Porter 
(268) 



IN A HAIL OF FIRE 269 

began this work, by capturing New Orleans 
and all the river below it. And they went far 
up the river, too. But in the end such great 
forts were built at Vicksburg and Port Hud- 
son and other points that the Confederate gov- 
ernment held the river in a tight grasp. 

In this way the Confederacy became master 
of the Mississippi for a thousand miles. We 
are to see now how it was taken from their 
grasp. 

James B. Eads, the engineer who built the 
great railroad bridge over the Mississippi at 
St. Louis, made the first iron-clads for the 
West. There were seven of these. They were 
river steamers, and were covered with iron, but 
it was not very thick. Two others were after- 
ward built, making nine in all. 

Each of these boats had thirteen guns, and 
they did good work in helping the army to cap- 
ture two strong Confederate forts in Kentucky. 
Then they went down the Mississippi to an 
island that was called Island No. 10. It was 
covered with forts, stretching one after an- 
other all along its shore. 

A number of mortar boats were brought 
down and threw shells into the forts till they 



2 70 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

were half paved with iron. But all that did 
no good. Then Admiral Foote was asked to 
send one of the boats down past the forts. 

That was dreadfully dangerous work, for 
there were guns enough in them to sink twenty- 
such boats. But Captain Walke thought he 
could take his boat, the Carondelet, down, and 
the admiral told him he might try. 

What was the Carondelet like, do you asl^? 
Well, she was a long, wide boat, with sloping 
sides and a flat roof, and was covered with iron 
two and a half inches thick. Four of her guns 
peeped out from each side, while three looked 
out from the front door, and two from the 
back door of the boat. 

Captain Walke did not half expect to get 
through the iron storm from the forts. To 
make his boat stronger, extra planks were laid 
on her deck and chain cables were drawn 
tightly across it. Then lumber was heaped 
thickly round the boiler and engines, and ropes 
were wrapped round and round the pilot-house 
till they were eighteen inches thick. 

After that a barge filled with bales of hay 
was tied fast to the side that would catch the 
fire of the forts. Something was done also to 



IN A HAIL OF FIRE 271 

stop the noise of the steam pipes, for Captain 
Walke thought he might shp down at night 
without being seen or heard. 

On the night of April 10, 1862, the boat 
made its dash down stream. It started just as 
a heavy thunderstorm came on. The wind 
whistled, the rain poured down in sheets, and 
the men in the forts hid from the storm. They 
were not thinking then of runaway gunboats. 

But something nobody had thought of now 
took place. The blazing wood in the furnaces 
set fire to the soot in the chimneys, and in a 
minute the boat was like a great flaming torch. 
As the men in the forts sprang up, the light- 
ning flashed out on the clouds, and lit up "the 
gallant little ship floating past like a phantom." 

The gunners did not mind the rain any more. 
They ran in great haste to their guns, and soon 
the batteries were flaming and roaring louder 
than the thunder itself. 

Fort after fort took it up as the Carondelet 
slid swiftly past. The lightning and the blaz- 
ing smoke-stack showed her plainly to the gun- 
ners. But the bright flashes blinded their eyes 
so that they could not half aim their guns. And 
thus it was that the brave little Carondelet 



2 72 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

went under the fire of fifty guns without being 
harmed. 

Soon after that Island No. lo was given up 
to the Union forces. Then the gunboats went 
farther down the river, and had two hard fights 
with Confederate boats, one at Fort Pillow and 
one at Memphis. Both these places were cap- 
tured, and in that way the river was opened 
all the way from St. Louis to Vicksburg> 

The City of Vicksburg is in the State of Mis- 
sissippi, about two hundred miles above New 
Orleans. Here are high river banks ; and these 
were covered thick with forts, so that Vicks- 
burg was the strongest place along the whole 
stream. 

There were also strong forts at Port Hud- 
son, about seventy-five miles below Vicksburg; 
and these seventy-five miles were all the Con- 
federates now held of the great stream. But 
they held these with a very strong hand and 
were not to let go easily. 

There were some great events at Vicksburg ; 
and I must tell about a few of these next. 

After New Orleans was taken Farragut took 
his ships up the river, running past the forts. 
He could easily have taken Vicksburg then, if 



IN A HAIL OF FIRE 273 

he had had any soldiers. But he had none, and 
it took a great army of soldiers, under General 
Grant, to capture it a year afterward. 

David D. Porter, who had helped Farragut 
so well in his great fight, was put in command 
of the Mississippi fleet. He had a number of 
iron-clad boats under him, some of them hav- 
ing iron so thin that they were called tin-clads. 

Commodore Porter had plenty to do. Now 
he sent his boats up through the Yazoo 
swamps, then they had a fight on the Arkansas 
River ; and in this way he was kept busy. 

In February, 1863, he sent two of his boats, 
the Queen of the West and the Indianola, down 
past the Vicksburg forts. That was an easy 
run. There was plenty of firing, but nobody 
was hurt. But after they got below they found 
trouble enough. 

First, the Queen of the West ran aground 
and could not be got off. Then the Indianola 
had a hole rammed in her side by a Confed- 
erate boat and w^ent to the bottom. So there 
wasn't much gained by sending these two boats 
down stream. 

But a curious thing took place. The Con- 
federates got the Queen of the West off the 



2 74 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

mud, and tried to raise the Indianola and stop 
its leaks. 

While they were hard at work at this they 
heard a frightful roar from the Vicksburg bat- 
teries. Looking up stream they saw a big 
boat coming down upon them at full speed. 
When they saw this they put the two big guns 
of the Indianola mouth to mouth, fired them 
into each other to ruin them, and then ran 
away. But weren't they vexed afterward when 
they learned that the boat that scared them was 
only a dummy which Porter's men had sent 
down the river in a frolic. 

After that, the river batteries did not give 
the ships much trouble. When the right time 
came Porter's fleet ran down the river through 
the fire of all the forts. One boat caught fire 
and sank, but all the rest passed safely through. 
This was done to help General Grant, who was 
marching his army down, to get below Vicks- 
burg. 

I suppose all readers of American history 
know about the great event of the 4th of July, 
1863. On that day Vicksburg was given up 
to the Union forces, with all its forts and all 
its men. Five days afterward Port Hudson 



IN A HAIL OF FIRE 275 

surrendered. Porter and his boats now held 
the great river through all its length. 

But there is something more to tell about 
Admiral Porter, who was a rear-admiral now. 

In the spring of 1864 General Banks was 
sent with an army up the Red River. He was 
going to Shreveport, which is about four hun- 
dred miles above where the Red River runs 
into the Mississippi. Porter went along with 
his river fleet to help. 

Now, no more need be said about Banks and 
his army, except that the whole expedition 
was only a waste of time, for it did no good; 
and there would be nothing to say about Porter 
and his fleet, if they had not gotten into a bad 
scrape which gave them hard work to get out. 

The boats went up the river easily enough, 
but when they tried to come down they found 
themselves in a trap. For after they had gone 
up, the river began to fall and the water came 
to be very low. 

There are two rapids, or small falls, on this 
part of the Red River, which show only at low 
water. They showed plainly enough now ; and 
there were twelve of the boats above them, 
caught fast. 



2 76 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

What was to be done? If they tried to run 
down the falls they would be smashed into 
kindling wood. It looked very much as if they 
would have to be left for the Confederates, or 
set on fire and burned. 

By good luck there was one man there who 
knew what to do. He was a lieutenant-colonel 
from Wisconsin, named Joseph Baily. He had 
been a log-driver before the war and knew 
what was done when logs got jammed in a 
stream. 

When he told his plan he was laughed at by 
some who thought it very foolish, but Porter 
told him to go ahead. So, with 2,000 soldiers 
from Maine, who knew all about logging, he 
went into the woods, chopped down trees, and 
built a dam below the falls. 

The men worked so hard that it took them 
only eight days to build the dam; which was 
wonderfully quick work. A place was left open 
in the center, and there four barges loaded with 
brick were sunk. 

When the dam was finished it lifted the 
water six feet higher, and down in safety went 
three of the steamers, while the army shouted 
and cheered. But just then two of the sunken 



IN A HAIL OF FIRE 277 

barges were carried away, and the water 
poured through the break in a flood. 

The gunboat Lexington was just ready to 
start. Admiral Porter stood on the banl<c 
watching, 

''Go ahead!" he shouted. 

At once the engines were started and the 
Lexington shot down the foaming rapid. 
There were no cheers now; everybody was 
still. 

Down she went, rolling and leaping on the 
wild waters; but soon she shot safe into the 
still pool below. All the other vessels were 
also safelv taken down. 



CHAPTER XXV 

THE SINKING OF THE "ALBEMARLE" 



Lieutenant Gushing Performs the Most 
Gallant Deed of the Civil War 

NOW I am going to tell you about one of 
the most gallant deeds done in the navy 
during the whole Givil War. The man 
who did it was brave enough to be made ad- 
miral of the fleet, yet he did not get even a gold 
medal for his deed. But he is one of our 
heroes. It is all about an iron-clad steamer, 
and how it was sent to rest in the mud of a 
river-bottom. 

The Confederate government had very bad 
luck with its iron-clads. It was busy enough 
building them, but they did not pay for their 
cost. The Merrimac did the most harm, but it 
soon went up In fire and smoke. 

Then there were the Louisiana at New Or- 
leans, and the Tennessee at Mobile. Farragut 
made short work of them. Two were built at 

(278) 



SINKING THE "ALBEMARLE" 279 

Charleston which were of little use. The last 
of them all was the Albemarle, whose story I 
am about to tell. 

The Roanoke River, in North Carolina, was 
a fine stream for blockade-runners. There was 
a long line of ships and gunboats outside, but 
in spite of them these swift runaways kept 
dashing in, loaded with goods for the people. 
Poor people! they needed them badly enough, 
for they had little of anything except what they 
could raise in their fields. 

But the gunboats kept pushing farther into 
the river, and gave the Confederates no end of 
trouble. So they began to build an iron-clad 
which they thought could drive these wooden 
wasps away. 

This iron-clad was a queer ship. Its keel 
was laid in a cornfield; its bolts and bars were 
hammered out in a blacksmith shop. Iron for 
its engines was picked up from the scrap heaps 
of the iron works at Richmond. Some of the 
Confederates laughed at it themselves ; but they 
deserved great credit for building a ship under 
such difficulties as these. 

It was finished in April, 1864, and nobody 
laughed at it when they saw it afloat. It was 



28o OUR NAVAL HEROES 

like the Merrimac in shape, and was covered 
with iron four inches thick. They named it 
the Albemarle. 

Very soon the Albemarle showed that it was 
no laughing matter. It sunk one gunboat and 
made another run away in great haste. Then 
it had a fight with four of them at once and 
drove one of these lame and limping away. 
The others did not come too near. After that 
it went back to the town of Plymouth and was 
tied up at the wharf. 

There was another iron-clad being built, and 
the Albemarle was kept waiting, so that the 
two could work together. That was a bad 
thing for the Albemarle, for she never went out 
again. 

This brings us back to the gallant deed I 
spoke of, and the gallant fellow who did the 
deed. His name was William B. Gushing. He 
was little more than a boy, just twenty-one 
years old, but he did not know what it meant 
to be afraid, and he had done so many daring 
things already that he had been made a lieu- 
tenant. 

He wanted to try to destroy the Albemarle, 
and his captain, who knew how bold a fellow 



SINKING THE "ALBEMARLE" 281 

he was, told him to go ahead and do his 
best. 

So on a dark night in October, 1864, brave 
young Gushing started up the river in a steam 
launch, with men and guns. At the bow of this 
launch was a long spar, and at the end of this 
spar was a torpedo holding a hundred pounds 
of dynamite. There was a trigger and a cap 
to set this off, a string to lower the spar and 
another to pull the trigger. But it was a 
poor affair to send on such an expedition as 
that. 

And this was not the worst. Some of the 
newspapers had found out what Gushing was 
going to do, and printed the whole story. And 
some of these newspapers got down South and 
let out the secret. That is what is called "news- 
paper enterprise." It is very good in its right 
place, but it was a sort of enterprise that nearly 
spoiled Gushing's plans. 

For the Gonfederates put lines of sentries 
along the river, and stationed a lookout down 
the stream, and placed a whole regiment of sol- 
diers near the wharf. And logs were chained 
fast around the vessel so that no torpedo spar 
could reach her. And the men on board were 



2«2 



OUR NAVAL HEROES 



sharply on the watch. That is what the news- 
papers did for Lieutenant Gushing. 

Of course, the young heutenant did not know 
all this, and he felt full of hope as his boat went 
up stream without being seen or heard. The 
night was very dark and there were no lights 
on board, and the engines were new and made 
no noise. 

So he passed the lookout in the river and the 
sentries on the banks without an eye seeing 
him or his boat. 

But when he came up to the iron-clad his 
hopes went down. For there was the boom of 
logs so far out that his spar could not reach 
her. 

What was he to do? Should he land at the 
wharf and take his men on board, and try to 
capture her where she lay? 

Before he had time to think it was too late 
for that. A sentry on board saw the launch 
and called out: 

"Boat ahoy !" There was no answer. 

"What boat is that?" Still no answer. 

Then came a musket shot, and then a rattle 
of musketry from the river bank. A minute 
after lights flashed out and men came running 



SINKING THE "ALBEMARLE" 283 

down the wharf. The ship's crew tumbled up 
from below. All was haste and confusion. 

Almost any man would have given it up for 
lost and run for safety. But Gushing was not 
of that kind. It did not take him a second to 
decide. He ran the launch out into the stream, 
turned her round, and dashed at full speed 
straight for the boom. 

A storm of bullets came from the deck of the 
Albemarle, but he heeded them no more than 
if they had been snowflakes. In a minute the 
bow of the launch struck the logs. 

They were slippery with river slime and the 
light boat climbed up on them, driving them 
down under the water. Over she went, and 
slid into the water inside the boom. 

Gushing stood in the bow, with the trigger- 
string in his hand. He lowered the torpedo 
under the hull of the iron-clad, lifted it till he 
felt it touch her bottom, and then pulled the 
string. 

There came two loud reports. A hundred- 
pounder gun was being fired from the ship's 
side right over his head. Along with it came 
a dull roar from under the water. The dyna- 
mite torpedo had gone off, tearing a great hole 



284 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

in the wooden bottom. In a minute the ill- 
fated Albemarle began to sink. 

The launch was fast inside the boom, and the 
wave from her torpedo was rushing over her, 
carrying her down. 

"Surrender," came a voice from above. 

"Never! Swim for your lives, men," cried 
Gushing, and he sprang into the flowing 
stream. s 

Two or three bullets had gone through his 
clothing, but he was unhurt, and swam swiftly 
away, his men after him. 

Only Gushing and one of the men got away. 
The others were captured, except one who was 
drowned. Boats were quickly out, a fire of 
logs was made on the wharf, which threw its 
light far out over the stream, but he reached 
the shore unseen, chilled to the bone and com- 
pletely worn out. 

A sentry was pacing on the wall of a fort 
over his head, men passed looking for him, but 
he managed to creep to the swamp nearby and 
hide in the mud and reeds. 

There he lay till the break of day. Then he 
crawled on till he got into a cornfield nearby. 
Now for the first time he could stand up and 



SINKING THE "ALBEMARLE" 285 

walk. But just as he got to the other side of 
the field he came face to face with a man. 

Gushing was not afraid. It was a black face. 
In those days no Union soldier was afraid of 
a black face. The slaves would do anything 
for *'Massa Linkums' sojers." The young 
lieutenant was almost as black as the slave 
after his long crawl through the mud. 

Gushing told him who he was, and sent him 
into the town for news, waiting in the corn- 
field for his return. After an hour the mes- 
senger came back. His face was smiling with 
delight. 

"Good news, Massa," he said. "De big iron 
ship's gone to de bottom suah. Folks dar say 
she'll neber git up agin." 

"Mighty good," said Gushing. "Now, old 
man, tell me how I can get back to the ships." 

The negro told him all he could, and with a 
warm "Good-bye" the fugitive took to the 
swamp again. On he went, hour by hour, 
forcing his way through the thick bushes and 
wading in the deep mud. Thus he went on, 
mile after mile, until at length, at two o'clock 
in the afternoon, he found himself on the banks 
of a narrow creek. 



286 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

Here he heard voices and drew back. Look- 
ing through the bushes he saw a party of seven 
soldiers just landing from a boat. They tied 
the boat to the root of a tree and went up a 
path that led back from the river. Soon they 
stopped, sat down, and began to eat their din- 
ner. They could see their boat from where 
they sat, but they were too busy eating to think 
of that. s 

Here was Cushing's chance. It was a des- 
perate one, but he was ready to try anything. 
He lowered himself quietly into the stream, 
swam across, and untied the boat. Then he 
noiselessly pushed it out and swam with it 
down stream. As soon as he was out of sight 
of the soldiers he climbed in and rowed away 
as fast as he could. What the soldiers thought 
and said when they missed their boat nobody 
knows. He did not see them again. 

It was a long journey. The creek was 
crooked and winding. Night came on before 
he reached the river. Then he paddled on till 
midnight. Ten hours of hard toil had passed 
when he saw the dark hull of a gunboat nearby. 

''Ship ahoy!" he cried. 

"Who goes there?" called the lookout. 



SINKING THE "ALBEMARLE" 287 

"A friend. Take me up." 

A boat was lowered and rowed towards him. 
The officer in it looked with surprise when he 
saw a mud-covered man, with scratched and 
bleeding face. 

"Who are you?" he asked. 

"Lieutenant Gushing, or what is left of him." 

"Gushing! — and how about the Albemarle f" 

"She will never trouble Uncle Sam's ships 
again. She lies in her muddy grave on the 
bottom of the Roanoke." 

Gheers followed this welcome news, and 
when the gallant lieutenant was safe on board 
the Valley City the cheers grew tenfold. 

For Lieutenant Gushing had done a deed 
which was matched for daring only once in the 
history of our navy, and that was when De- 
catur burned the Philadelphia in the harbor of 
Tripoli. 



CHAPTER XXVI 

HOW THE "GLOUCESTER" REVENGED 
THE SINKING OF THE "MAINE" 



Deadly and Heroic Deeds in the War 
With Spain 

IF you look at a map of the country we dwell 
in, you will see that it has a finger pointing 
south. That finger is called Florida, and 
it points to the beautiful island of Cuba, which 
spreads out there to right and left across the 
sea of the South. 

The Spaniards in Cuba were very angry 
when they found the United States trying to 
stop the war which they had carried on so 
mercilessly. They thought this country had 
nothing to do with their affairs. And in Ha- 
vana, the capital city of the island, riots broke 
out and Americans were insulted. 

Never before in the history of the United 
States navy had there been so terrible a dis- 
aster as the sinking of the Maine by a frightful 

(288) 



REVENGE FOR THE "MAINE" 289 

and deadly explosion in the harbor of Havana, 
Cuba, on February 15, 1898, and never was 
there greater grief and indignation in the 
United States than when the story was told. 

Do you know what followed this dreadful 
disaster? But of course you do, for it seems 
almost yesterday that the Maine went down 
with her slaughtered crew. Everybody said 
that the Spaniards had done this terrible deed 
and Spain should pay for it. We all said so 
and thought so, you and I and all true Amer- 
icans. 

Before the loss of the Maine many people 
thought we ought to go to war with Spain, and 
put an end to the cruelty with which the Cu- 
bans were treated. After her loss there were 
not many who thought we ought not to. Our 
people were in a fury. They wanted war, and 
were eager to have it. 

The heads of the government at Washington 
felt the same way. Many millions of dollars 
were voted by Congress, and much of this was 
spent in buying ships and hiring and repairing 
ships, and much more of it in getting the army 
ready for war. 

For Congress was as full of war-feeling as 

19 



290 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

the people. President McKinley would have 
liked to have peace, but he could no more hold 
back the people and Congress than a man with 
an ox-chain could hold back a locomotive. So 
it was that, two months after the Maine sank 
in the mud of Havana harbor, like a great 
coffin filled with the dead, war was declared 
against Spain. s 

Now, I wish to tell you how the loss of the 
Maine was avenged. I am not going to tell 
you here all about what our navy did in the 
war. There are some good stories to tell about 
that. But just here we -have to think about the 
Maine and her murdered men, and have to tell 
about how one of her officers paid Spain back 
for the dreadful deed. 

As soon as the telegraph brought word to the 
fleet at Key West that "War is declared," the 
great ships lifted their anchors and sped away, 
bound for Cuba, not many miles to the south. 
And about a month afterward this great fleet 
of battleships, and monitors, and cruisers, and 
gunboats were in front of the harbor of Santi- 
ago, holding fast there Admiral Cervera and 
his men, who were in Santiago harbor with the 
finest warships owned by Spain. 



REVENGE FOR THE "MAINE" 291 

There were in the American fleet big ships 
and Httle ships, strong ships and weak ships; 
and one of the smallest of them all was the 
little Gloucester. This had once been a plea- 
sure yacht, used only for sport. It was now 
a gunboat ready for war. It had only a few 
small guns, but these were of the "rapid-lire" 
kind, which could pour out iron balls almost 
as fast as hailstones come from the sky in a 
storm. 

And in command of the Gloucester was Lieu- 
tenant Wainwright, who had been night offi- 
cer of the Maine when that ill-fated ship was 
blown up by a Spanish mine. The gallant lieu- 
tenant was there to avenge his lost ship. 

I shall tell you later about how the Spanish 
ships dashed out of the harbor of Santiago 
on the 3d of July and what happened to them. 
Just now you wish to know what Lieutenant 
Wainwright and the little Gloucester did on 
that great day, and how Spain was made to 
pay for the loss of the Maine. 

As soon as the Spanish ships came out, the 
Gloucester dashed at them, like a wasp trying 
to sting an ox. She steamed right across the 
mouth of the harbor until she almost touched 



292 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

one of the great Spanish ships, all the time 
firing away like mad at its iron sides. 

The brave Wainwright saw two little boats 
coming out behind these big ones. These were 
what are called torpedo-boats. 

Do you know what this means ? A torpedo- 
boat is little, but it can dart through the water 
with the speed of the wind. And it carries 
torpedoes — iron cases filled with dynamite — 
which it can shoot out against the great war- 
ships. One of these could tear a gaping hole 
in the side of a battleship and send it, with all 
on board, to the bottom. A torpedo-boat is the 
rattlesnake of the sea. It is little, but it is 
deadly. 

But Lieutenant Wainwright and the men of 
the Gloucester were not afraid of the Furor 
and the Pluton, the Spanish torpedo-boats. As 
soon as they saw these boats they drove their 
little vessel toward them at full speed. The 
Gloucester came under the fire of one of the 
Spanish forts, but she did not mind that any 
more than if boys were throwing oyster-shells 
at her. 

Out from her guns came a torrent of balls 
like water from a pump. But the water drops 



REVENGE 'FOR THE "MAINE" 293 

were made of iron, and hit hard. The Furor 
and Pluton tried to fire back, but their men 
could not stand that iron rain. For twenty 
minutes it kept on, and then all was over with 
the torpedo-boats. They tried to run ashore, 
but down to the bottom they both went. Of all 
their men only about two dozen were picked up 
alive. The rest sank to the bottom of the bay. 
Thus Wainwright and his little yacht 
avenged the Maine, and the dreadful tragedy 
in Havana harbor was paid for in Santiago 
Bay. 



CHAPTER XXVII 

THE GREAT VICTORY OF MANILA 
BAY 



Dewey Destroys a Fleet Without Losing 

A Man 

GEORGE DEWEY was a Green Mountain 
boy, a son of the Vermont hills. Many- 
good stories are told of his schoolboy 
days, and when he grew up to be a man every- 
body that knew him said that he was a fine 
fellow, who would make his mark. And they 
were right about him, though he had to wait 
a long time for the chance to show what he 
would do. 

Dewey was sent to the Naval Academy at 
Annapolis, Maryland, and when the Civil War 
began he was a lieutenant in the navy. He 
was with Farragut on the Mississippi, and did 
some gallant deeds on that great river. 

When the war with Spain began Dewey was 
on the Chinese coast with a squadron of Amer- 

(294) 



VICTORY OF MANILA BAY 295 

ican ships. He had been raised in rank and 
was Commodore Dewey then. A commodore, 
you should know, was next above a captain and 
next below an admiral. 

Commodore Dewey had four fine ships, the 
cruisers Olympia, Baltimore, Raleigh, and Bos- 
ton. He had also two gunboats and a despatch- 
boat, making seven in all. 

These vessels were at Hong Kong, a British 
seaport in China. They could not stay there 
after war with Spain was declared, for Hong 
Kong was a neutral port, and after war begins 
fighting ships must leave neutral ports. But 
Dewey knew where to go, for under the ocean 
and over the land there had come to him a tele- 
gram from Washington, more than ten thou- 
sand miles away, which said, "Seek the Span- 
ish fleet and capture or destroy it." Dewey did 
not waste any time in obeying orders. 

He knew where to seek the Spanish fleet. A 
few hundred miles away to the east of China 
lay the fine group of islands called the Philip- 
pines, which then belonged to Spain. In Luzon, 
the biggest of these islands, was the fine large 
City of Manila, the centre of the Spanish power 
in the East. So straight across the China Sea 



296 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

Dewey went at all speed towards this seaport 
of Spain. 

On the morning of Saturday, April 30, 1898, 
the men on the leading ship saw land rising in 
the distance, green and beautiful, and farther 
away they beheld the faint blue lines of the 
mountains of Luzon. Down this green trop- 
ical coast they sped, and when night was near 
at hand they came close to the entrance of 
Manila Bay. 

Here there were forts to pass ; and the ships 
were slowed up. Dewey was ready to fight 
with ships, but he did not want to fight with 
forts, so he waited for darkness to come before 
going in. He thought that he might then pass 
these forts without being seen by the men in 
them. 

They waited until near midnight, steaming 
slowly along until they came to the entrance to 
the bay. The moon was in the sky, but gray 
clouds hid its light. They could see the two 
dark headlands of the harbor's mouth rising 
and, and between them a small, low island. On 
this island were the forts which they had to 
pass. 

As they came near, all the lights on the 



VICTORY OF MANILA BAY 297 

ships were put out or hidden, except a small 
electric light at the stern of each ship, for the 
next one to see and follow. 

Steam was put on, and the ships glided 
swiftly and silently in, like shadows in the 
darkness. All was silent in the Spanish forts. 
The sentinels seemed fast asleep. 

Some of the ships had passed before the 
Spaniards waked up. Then a rocket shot up 
into the air, and there came a deep boom and 
a flash of flame. A shell went whizzing 
through the darkness over the ships and 
plunged into the water beyond. 

Some shots were fired back, but In a few 
minutes it was all over and Dewey's squadron 
was safe in Manila Bay. The gallant Amer- 
ican sailors had made their way into the lion's 
den. 

The Bay of Manila is a splendid body of 
water, running many miles into the land. The 
City of Manila is about twenty miles from the 
harbor's mouth, and the ships had to go far in 
before its distant lights were seen, gleaming 
like faint stars near the earth. 

But it was not the city Dewey was after. He 
was seeking the Spanish fleet. When the dawn 



2 98 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

came, and the sun rose behind the city, he saw 
sails gleaming in its light. But these were 
merchant vessels, not the warships he had come 
so far to find. 

The keen eyes of the commodore soon saw 
the ships he was after. There they lay, across 
the mouth of the little bay of Cavite, south of 
the city, a group of ships-of-war, nine or ten 
in number. 

This brings us to the beginning of the great 
naval battle of the war. Let us stop now and 
take a look around. If you had been there I 
know what you would have said. You would 
have said that the Americans were sure to win, 
for they had the biggest ships and the best 
guns. Yes, but you must remember that the 
Spaniards were at home, while the Americans 
were not; and that makes a great difference. 
If they had met out on the open sea Dewey 
would have had the best of the game. But 
here were the Spanish ships drawn up in a line 
across a narrow passage, with a fort on the 
right and a fort on the left, and with dynamite 
mines under the water. And they knew all 
about the distances and soundings and should 
have known just how to aim their guns so as 



VICTORY OF MANILA BAY 299 

to hit a mark at any distance. All this the 
Americans knew nothing about. 

When we think of this it looks as if Dewey 
had the worst of the game. But some of you 
may say that the battle will tell best which side 
had the best and which the worst. Yes, that's 
true; but we must always study our players 
before we begin our g?ime. 

George Dewey did not stop long to think 
and study. He was there to take his chances. 
The minute he saw the Spanish ships he went 
for them as a football player goes for the line 
of his opponents. 

Forward went the American squadron, with 
the Stars and Stripes floating proudly at every 
mast-head. First of all was the flagship 
Olympia, with Dewey standing on its bridge. 
Behind came the other ships in a long line. 

As they swept down in front of the city the 
great guns of the forts sent out their balls. 
Then the batteries on shore began to fire. Then 
the Spanish ships joined in. There was a ter- 
rible roar. Just in front of the Olympia two 
mines exploded, sending tons of water into 
the air. But they had been set off too soon, and 
no harm was done. ^ 



300 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

All this time the American ships swept 
grandly on, not firing a gun ; and Dewey stood 
still on the bridge while shot and shell from the 
Spanish guns went hurling past. He was 
there to see, and danger did not count just 
then. 

As they drs^ve on an old sea-dog raised the 
cry, ^'Remember the Maine!" and in a minute 
the shout ran through the ship. Still on went 
the Olympia, like a great mastiff at which curs 
are barking. At length Dewey spoke, — 

"You may fire when you are ready, Captain 
Gridley," he said. Captain Gridley was ready 
and waiting. In an instant a great eight-inch 
shell from the Olympia went screaming 
through the air. 

This was the signal. The Baltimore and the 
Boston followed, and before five minutes had 
passed every ship was pouring shot and shell 
on the Spanish squadron and forts. Great guns 
and small guns, slow-fire guns and rapid-fire 
guns, hand guns and machine guns, all 
boomed and barked together, and their shot 
whistled and screamed, until it sounded like a 
mighty carnival of death. 

Down the Spanish line swept the American 



VICTORY OF MANILA BAY 301 

ships. Then they turned and swept back, firing 
from the other side of the ships. Six times, 
this way, they passed the Spanish ships, while 
the air was full of great iron balls and dense 
clouds of smoke floated over all. 

You will not ask which side had the best of 
the battle after I tell you one thing. The Amer- 
icans had been trained to aim and fire, and the 
Spaniards had not. Here overhead flew a 
Spanish shell. There another plunged into the 
water without reaching a ship. Hardly one of 
them reached its mark. Not an American was 
killed or wounded. A box of powder went off 
and hurt a few men, and that w^as all. 

But the Spanish ships were rent and torn 
like deer when lions get among them, and their 
men fell by dozens at a time. It was one of the 
most one-sided fights ever seen. 

Admiral Montojo, of the Spanish fleet, could 
not stand this. He started out with his flag- 
ship, named the Reina Cristina, straight for 
the Olympia, which he hoped to cut in two. 
But as soon as his ship appeared all the Amer- 
ican ships turned their guns on it, and riddled 
it with a frightful storm of iron. 

The brave Spaniard saw that his ship would 



302 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

be sunk if he went on. He turned to run back, 
but as he did so a great eight-inch shell struck 
his ship in the stern and went clear through to 
the bow, scattering death and destruction on 
every side. It exploded one of the boilers. It 
blew open the deck. It set the ship on fire. 
White smoke caii^e curling up. The ship fought 
on as the fire burned, but she was past hope. 

Two torpedo-boats came out, but they could 
not stand the storm any better than the Reina 
Cristina. In a few minutes one of them was 
cut through and went like a stone to the bot- 
tom. The other ran in faster than she had 
come out and went ashore. 

For two hours this dreadful work went on. 
Then Dewey thought it was time to give his 
men a rest and let them have some breakfast, 
so he steamed away. Three of the Spanish 
ships were burning like so much tinder, and it 
was plain that the battle was as good as won. 

A little after eleven o'clock the American 
ships came back fresh as ever, all of them with 
the Stars and Stripes afloat. The Spanish flag 
was flying too, but nearly every ship was in 
flames. But the Spaniards were not whipped 
yet. They began to fire again, and so for an- 



VICTORY OF MANILA BAY 303 

other hour the fight went on. At the end of 
that time the guns were silenced, the flags had 
gone down, and the battle was won. 

That was the end of the most one-sided vic- 
tory in the history of the American navy. All 
the Spanish ships were on fire and had sunk in 
the shallow bay. Hundreds of their men were 
dead or wounded. The American ships were 
nearly as good as ever, for hardly a shot had 
struck them, and only eight men were slightly 
hurt. The Spaniards had fired fast enough, but 
they had wasted nearly all their shot. 

When the people of the United States heard 
of this great victory they were wild with de- 
light. Before that very few had heard of 
George Dewey; now he was looked on as one 
of our greatest naval heroes. "Dewey on the 
bridge," with shot and shell screaming about 
him, was as fine a figure as *'Farragut in the 
shrouds" had once been. 

Congress made him a rear-admiral at once, 
and soon after they made him an admiral. 
This is the highest rank in the American navy. 
Only Farragut and Porter had borne it before. 



CHAPTER XXVIII 

HOBSON AND THE SINKING OF THE 
"MERRIMAC" 



An Heroic Deed Worthy of the American 

Navy 

SOME of us know what a dark night is 
and some of us don't. Those who hve 
in cities, under the glare of the electric 
light, hardly ever see real darkness. One must 
go far into the country, and be out on a cloudy 
night, to know what it means to be really in 
the dark. Or to be out at sea, with not a light 
above or below. 

It was on such a night that a great black 
hulk moved like a sable monster through the 
waters off the coast of Cuba. This was the 
night of June 3, 1898. There was a moon 
somewhere in the sky, but thick clouds lay over 
it and snuffed out its light. And on the vessel 
not a light was to be seen and not a sound could 
be heard. It was like a mighty beast gliding 
on its prey. 

(304) 



HOBSON AND THE "MERRIMAC" 305 

This vessel was the Merrimac, which had 
carried a load of coal to the American fleet that 
lay outside of Santiago de Cuba. Inside the 
harbor there were four fine Spanish ships -of ■ 
war. But these were like foxes run into their 
hole, with the hunters waiting for them out- 
side. 

The harbor of Santiago is something like a 
great, mis-shipen water-bottle, and the pas- 
sage into the harbor is like the neck of the 
bottle. Now, if you want to keep anything 
from getting out of a bottle you drive a cork 
into its neck. And that is just what the Amer- 
icans were trying to do. The Merrimac was 
the cork with which they wanted to fasten up 
the Spanish ships in the water-bottle of San- 
tiago. 

The captain of the Merrimac was a young 
officer named Richard P. Hobson, who was 
ready to give his life, if he must, for his coun- 
try. Admiral Sampson did not like to send 
anyone into such terrible danger, but the dar- 
ing young man insisted on going, and he had 
no trouble in getting seven men to go with him. 

Most of the coal had been taken out of the 
Merrimac, but there was enough left to sink 
20 



3o6 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

her to the bottom hke a stone. And along both 
sides there had been placed a row of torpedoes, 
filled with gunpowder and with electric wires 
to set them off when the right time came. 

Hobson was to try to take the ship to the 
right spot, and4;hen to blow holes in her sides 
with the torpedoes and sink her across the 
channel. Would not he and his men sink with 
her? Oh, well, they took the chances on that. 

Lieutenant Hobson had a fine plan laid out; 
but the trouble with fine plans is that they do 
not always work in a fine way. He was to go 
in to where the channel was very narrow. 
Then he was to let the anchor fall and swing 
the ship round crossways with the rudder. 
Then he would touch the button to fire the tor- 
pedoes. When that was done they would all 
jump overboard and swim to the little boat that 
was towed astern. They expected the Mer- 
riniac would sink across the channel and thus 
cork it up. 

That was the plan. Don't you think it was 
a very good one? I am sure Lieutenant Hob- 
son and Admiral Sampson thought so, and felt 
sure they were going to give the Spaniards a 
great deal of trouble. 



HOBSON AND THE "MERRIMAC" 307 

It was about three o'clock when the Mer- 
rimac came into the mouth of the channel. 
Here it was pitch dark and as still as death. 
But the Spaniards were not asleep. They had 
a small picket-boat in the harbor's mouth, on 
the lookout for trouble, and its men saw a 
deeper darkness moving through the darkness. 

They thought it must be one of the Amer- 
ican warships and rowed out and fired several 
shots at it. One of these hit the chains of the 
rudder and carried them off. That spoiled 
Hobson's plan of steering across the channel. 
You see, as I have just told you, it does not 
take much to spoil a good plan. 

The alarm was given and the Spaniards in 
the forts roused up. They looked out and saw 
this dark shadow gliding swiftly on through 
the gloom. They, too, thought it must be an 
American battle-ship, and that the whole fleet 
might be coming close behind to attack the 
ships in the harbor. 

The guns of Morro Castle and of the shore 
batteries began to rain their balls on the Mer- 
rimac. Then the Spanish ships joined in and 
fired down the channel until there was a ter- 
rible roar. And as the Merrimac drove on, a 



3o8 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

dynamite mine under the water went off be- 
hind her, flinging the water into the air, but 
not doing her any harm. 

The cannonade was fierce and fast, but the 
darkness and the smoke of the guns hid the 
Merrimac, and "she went on unhurt. Soon the 
narrow part of the channel was reached. Then 
the anchor was dropped to the bottom and the 
engines were made to go backward. The helm 
was set, but the ship did not turn. Hobson 
now first learned that the rudder chains were 
gone and the ship could not be steered. The 
little picket-boat had spoiled his fine plan. 

There was only one thing left to do. He 
touched the electric button. In a second a dull 
roar came up from below and the ship pitched 
and rolled. A thousand pounds of powder had 
exploded and blown great jagged holes in the 
ship's sides. 

Hobson and his men leaped over the side 
into the water. Those who were slow about it 
were flung over by the shock. Down plunged 
the Merrimac beneath the waves, while loud 
cheers came from the forts. The Spanish gun- 
ners were glad, for they thought they had 
sunk a great American battleship. 




HoBSON Blowing up the Merrimac. 



HOBSON AND THE ''MERRIMAC" 309 

But it does not matter to us what the Span- 
iards thought. All we want to know is what 
became of Lieutenant Hobson and his daring 
men. Their little boat had been carried away 
by a Spanish shot, and they were swimming in 
the deep waters without knowing what would 
be their fate. On one side was the sea; on the 
other were the Spaniards: they did not know 
which would be the worst. 

'T swam away from the ship as soon as I 
struck the water," said Hobson, "but I could 
feel the eddies drawing me backward in spite 
of all I could do. That did not last long, 
however, and as soon as I felt the tugging 
cease I turned and struck out for the float, 
which I could see dimly bobbing up and down 
over the sunken hull." 

The float he spoke of was a sort of raft 
which lay on the ship's deck, with a rope tied 
to it so as to let it float. The rope pulled one 
side of it a little under the water, so that the 
other side was a little above the water. 

This was a good thing for Hobson and his 
men, for Spanish boats were soon rowing out 
to where the ship had gone down. The eight 
men got under the high side of the raft, and 



3IO OUR NAVAL HEROES 

held on to it by putting their fingers through 
the crevices. 

"All night long we stayed there with our 
noses and mouths barely out of the water," says 
Hobson. 

They were afraid to speak or move, for fear 
they would be shot by the men in the boats. 
It was that way all night long. Boats kept 
rowing about, some of them very close, but 
nobody thought of looking under the raft. The 
water felt warm at first, but after a while it 
felt cold, and their fingers ached and their teeth 
chattered. 

One of the men, who thought he could not 
stand this any longer, left the raft and started 
to swim ashore. Hobson had to call him back. 
He came at once, but the call was heard on 
the boats and they rowed swiftly up. But they 
did not find the hiding place of the men and 
rowed away again. 

After daylight came Hobson saw a steam- 
launch approaching from the ships. There 
were officers in It, and when it came near he 
gave it a hail. His voice seemed to scare the 
men on board, for they backed off in great 
haste. 



HOBSON AND THE "MERRIMAC" 311 

They were still more surprised when they 
saw a number of men clamber out from under 
the float. The marines in the launch were 
about to fire, but the officers would not let them. 

Then Hobson swam towards the launch and 
called out in Spanish : 

"Is there an officer on board?" 

"Yes," came the reply. 

*T have seven men to surrender," said Hob- 
son. 

He now swam up and was seized and lifted 
out of the water. One of the men who had 
hold of him was Admiral Cervera, the com- 
mander of the Spanish fleet. 

The admiral gave an odd look at the queer 
kind of fish lie had caught. Hobson had been 
in the engine-rom of the Merrimac and was 
covered with oil, coal-dust, and soot. But he 
wore his officer's belt, and when he pointed to 
that the admiral smiled and bade him welcome. 

Then the men were taken on board the 
launch, where they were well treated. They 
had come very near death and had escaped. 

Of course, you want to read the rest of this 
story. Well, they were locked up in Morro 
Castle. This w^as a fine old fort on the cliff at 



312 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

the harbor's mouth, where they could see the 
great shells come in from the ships and explode, 
and see the Spanish gunners fire back. 

Admiral Cervera was very kind to them and 
sent word to Admiral Sampson that they were 
safe, and that he would exchange them for 
Spanish prisoners. 

They were not exchanged until July 7, and 
by that time Admiral Cervera's ships had all 
been destroyed and he was a prisoner himself. 



CHAPTER XXIX 

SAMPSON AND SCHLEY WIN 
RENOWN 



The Greatest Sea Fight of the Century 

I HAVE told you what Hobson did and what 
Wainwright did at Santiago. Now it is 
time to tell all about what the ships did 
there; the story of the great Spanish dash for 
liberty and its woeful ending. 

Santiago is the second city of Cuba. It lies 
as far to the east as Havana does to the west, 
and is on the south of the island, while Havana 
is on the north. Like Havana, it has a fine 
harbor, which is visited by many ships. 

Well, soon after the war with Spain began, 
our naval captains were in trouble. They had 
a riddle given them for which they could not 
find the answer. There was a squadron of 
Spanish warships at sea, and nobody knew 
where to look for them. They might fire into 
the cities along the coast and do no end of 



314 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

damage. Maybe there was not much danger 
of this; but there is nothing sure in war, and 
it does not take much to scare some people. 

The navy wanted to be on the safe side, so 
one part of the fleet was put on the lookout 
along our coast ; and another part, under Com- 
modore Schley, went around the west end of 
the island of Cuba ; and a third part, under Ad- 
miral Sampson, went to the east. They were 
all on the hunt for the Spanish ships, but for 
days and days nothing of them was to be seen. 

After they had looked into this hole and 
into that hole along the coast, like sea-dogs 
hunting a sea-coon, word came that the Span- 
ish ships had been seen going into Santiago 
harbor. Then straight for Santiago went all 
the fleet, with its captains very glad to have 
the answer to the riddle. 

Never before had the United States so splen- 
did a fleet to fight with. There were five fine 
battleships, the lozva, the Indiana, the Massa- 
chusetts, the Oregon, and iho:' Texas. Then 
there was the Neiv York, Admiral Sampson's 
flagship, and the Brooklyn, Commodore 
Schley's flagship. These were steel-clad crui- 
sers, not so heavy, but much faster than the 



SAMPSON AND SCHLEY 315 

battleships. Besides these there were moni- 
tors, and cruisers, and gunboats, and vessels 
of other kinds, all spread like a net around the 
mouth of the harbor, ready to catch any big 
fish that might swim out. Do you not think 
that was a pretty big crowd of ships to deal 
with the Spanish squadron, which had only 
four cruisers and two torpedo-boats? 

But then, you know, the insider sometimes 
has a better chance than the outsider. It is 
not easy to keep such a crowd of vessels to- 
gether out at sea. They run out of coal, or 
get out of order, or something else happens. 
If the insider keeps his eyes wide open and 
waits long enough his chance will come. 

Admiral Cervera, the Spanish commander, 
was in a very tight place. Outside lay the 
American ships, and inside was the American 
army, which kept pushing ahead and was likely 
to take Santiago in a few days. If he waited 
he might be caught like a rat in a trap. And 
if he came outside he might be caught like a 
fish In a net. He thought it all over and he 
made up his mind that it was better to be a 
fish than a rat, so he decided to come out of 
the harbor. 



3i6 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

He waited till the 3d of July. On that day 
there were only five of the big ships outside — 
four of the battleships and the cruiser Brook- 
lyn. And two of the battleships were a little 
out of order and were being made right. Ad- 
miral Sampson had gone up the coast with the 
Nezv York for a talk with the army general, 
so he was out of the way. 

No doubt the Spanish lookouts saw all this 
and told their admiral what they had seen. So, 
on that Sunday morning, with every vessel 
under full steam, the Spaniards raised their 
anchors and started on their last cruise. 

Now let us take a look at the big ships out- 
side. On these everybody was keeping Sun- 
day. The officers had put on their best Sunday 
clothes, and the men were lying or lounging 
idly about the deck. Of course, there were 
lookouts aloft. Great ships like these always 
have their lookouts. A war-vessel never quite 
goes to sleep. It always keeps one eye open. 
This Sunday morning the lookouts saw smoke 
coming up the harbor, but likely enough they 
thought that the Spaniards were frying fish 
for their Sunday breakfast. 

And so the hours went on until it was about 




The l-'iGirrixc Top of riii-: Texas. 



SAMPSON AND SCHLEY 317 

half-past nine. Then an officer on the Brook- 
lyn called to the lookout aloft : 

"Isn't that smoke moving?" 

The answer came back with a yell that made 
everybody jump : 

"There's a big ship coming out of the har- 
bor!" 

In a second the groups of officers and men 
were on their feet and wide-awake. The Span- 
iards were coming ! Nobody now wanted to be 
at home or to go a-fishing. There were bigger 
fish coming into their net. 

"Clear the ship for action!" cried Commo- 
dore Schley. 

From every part of the ship the men rushed 
to their quarters. Far down below the stokers 
began to shovel coal like mad into the fur- 
naces. In the turrets the gun-crews hurried 
to get their guns ready. The news spread like 
lightning, and the men made ready like magic 
for the terrible work before them. 

It was the same on all the ships as on the 
Brooklyn, for all of them saw the Spaniards 
coming. Down past the wreck of the Mer- 
rimac sped Cervera's ships, and headed for the 
open sea. First came the Maria Teresa, the 



3i8 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

admirars flagship. Then came the Vizcaya, 
the Oquendo, and the Cristobal Colon, and 
after them the two torpedo-boats. 

"Full speed ahead! Open fire!" roared the 
commodore from the bridge of the Brooklyn, 
and in a second there came a great roar and a 
huge iron globe went screaming towards the 
Spanish ships. 

It was the same on the other ships. Five 
minutes before they had been swinging lazily 
on the long rolling waves, everybody at rest. 
Now clouds of black smoke came pouring from 
their funnels, every man was at his post, every 
gun ready for action, and the great ships were 
beginning to move through the water at the 
full power of the engines. And from every 
one of them came flashes as of lightning, and 
roars as of thunder, and huge shells went 
whirling through the air toward the Spanish 
ships. 

Out of the channel they dashed, four noble 
ships, and turned to the west along the coast. 
Only the Brooklyn was on that side of the 
harbor, and for ten minutes three of the Span- 
ish ships poured at her a terrible fire. 

But soon the Oregon, the Indiana, the Iowa, 



SAMPSON AND SCHLEY 319 

and the Texas came rapidly up, and the Span- 
ish gunners had new game to fire at. 

You might suppose that the huge iron shells, 
whirling through the air, and bursting with a 
frightful roar, would tear and rend the ships 
as though they were made of paper. 

But just think how it was at Manila, where 
the Spaniards fired at the sea and the sky, and 
the Americans fired at the Spanish ships. It 
was the same here at Santiago. The Span- 
iards went wild with their guns and wasted 
their balls, while the Americans made nearly 
every shot tell. 

It was a dreadful tragedy for Spain that day 
on the Cuban coast. The splendid ships which 
came out of the harbor so stately and trim, 
soon looked like ragged wrecks. In less than 
half an hour two of them were ashore and in 
a fierce blaze, and the two others were flying 
for life. The first to yield was the Maria 
Teresa, the flagship of the admiral. One shell., 
from the Brooklyn burst in her cabin and in a 
second it was in flames. One from the Texas 
burst in the engine-room and broke the steam- 
pipe. Some burst on the deck; some riddled 
the hull; death and terror were everywhere. 



320 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

The men were driven from the guns, the 
flames rose higher, the water poured in through 
the shot holes, and there was nobody to work 
the pumps. All was lost, and the ship was run 
ashore and her flag pulled down. 

In very few minutes the Oquendo followed 
the flagship ashore, both of them looking like 
great blazing torches. The shells from the 
great guns had torn her terribly, many of her 
crew had been killed, and those who were left 
had to run her ashore to keep her from going 
to the bottom of the sea. 

In half an hour, as you may see, two of the 
Spanish ships had been half torn to pieces and 
driven ashore, and only two were still afloat. 
These were the Viscaya and the Cristobal 
Colon. When the Maine was sent to Havana, 
before the beginning of the war, a Spanish 
warship was sent to New York. This was the 
Vizcaya. She was a trim and handsome ship 
and her officers had a hearty welcome. 

It was a different sort of welcome she now 
got. The Brooklyn and the Oregon were after 
her and her last day had come. So hot was the 
fire that her men were driven from their guns 
and flames began to appear. 



SAMPSON AND SCHLEY 321 

Then she, too, was run ashore and her flag 
was hauled down. It was just an hour after 
the chase began and she had gone twenty miles 
down the coast. Now she lay blazing redly 
on the shallow shore and in the night she blew 
up. It was a terrible business, the ruin of 
those three fine vessels. 

There was one more Spanish ship, the Cris- 
tobal Colon. (This is the Spanish for Chris- 
topher Columbus.) She was the fastest of 
them all, and for a time it looked as if Spain 
might save one of her ships. 

But there were bloodhounds on her track, 
the Brooklyn, six miles behind, and the Ore- 
gon, more than seven miles away. 

Swiftly onward fled the deer, and swiftly 
onward followed the war-hounds. Mile by 
mile they gained on the chase. About one 
o'clock, when she was four miles away, the 
Oregon sent a huge shell whizzing from one 
of her great 13-inch guns. It struck the water 
just behind the Colon; but another that fol- 
lowed struck the water ahead. 

Then the Brooklyn tried her eight-inch guns, 
and sent a shell through the Colon's side, above 
her belt of steel. For twenty minutes this was 

21 



322 OUR NAVAL HEROES 

kept up. The Colon was being served like her 
consorts. At the end of that time her flag was 
pulled down and the last of the Spanish ships 
ran ashore. She had made a flight for life of 
nearly fifty miles. 

This, you see, is not the story of a sea-fight; 
it is the story of a sea-chase. Much has been 
said about who won the honor at Santiago, 
but I think any of you could tell that in a few 
words. It was the men who ran the engines 
and who aimed the guns that won the game. 
The commanders did nothing but run after the 
runaway Spaniards, and there is no great 
honor in that. What else was there for them 
to do? They could not run the other way. 



OCT 3 1S08 



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